By: Hailley Fargo

This spring, the University Libraries were active participants in our undergraduate (and graduate) research exhibitions across the Commonwealth. Seventeen of our campus libraries participated in giving out a University Libraries’ Information Literacy Award. In total, 74 Penn State students received this award.

In preparation for awarding these 74 students, a team of Library employees got together in January to begin planning. This group was able to not only coordinate the award at their campuses, but also helped to make two great strides in this program. The group:

Revised and re-envisioned our rubric for evaluating student posters and research. While this rubric is iterative, the group this year made significant, impactful, and sustainable changes.

Created a shared poster creation workshop that was used at five campuses. We are excited to expand these numbers in the coming year.

A big shout out goes to the following colleagues who helped with creating the rubric — Joel Burkholder, Jen Jarson, Amy Rustic, Andrew Marshall, Beth Seyala, Erin Burns, Jen Hunter, Jo DePolt, and members of Library Learning Services. Additionally, the Poster Creation 101 workshop was created by Amy Deuink, Megan Mac Gregor, Christina Riehman-Murphy, Emily Mross, and John Siegel.

Additionally a round of thanks needs to go to everyone who helped judge for the Information Literacy Award across the Commonwealth. We could not have given out the award without you! Here at University Park, I’d like to thank Amanda Clossen, Carmen Cole, Claire Gianackos, Athena Jackson, Rebecca Miller, Rebecca Peterson, Kat Phillips, and Julie Porterfield for their efforts in helping choose our winners at UP.

To see a sampling of these Information Literacy Award winners, check our our 2018 Scholarsphere collection.

And although the exhibitions are over for the spring, the team will meet up at the end of May to debrief and begin setting goals for 2019. We look forward to expanding our award and the support we provide our students engaged in undergraduate research in the coming years! If you’re interested in getting more involved with this initiative, please reach out — hmf14@psu.edu!