University Libraries' undergraduate research award recognizes scholarly work based on a foundation of careful background research and literature review.

The award is given to entries that demonstrate excellence in information literacy. All students who enter a poster project in the annual Mont Alto Academic Festival will be considered for this award.

Our judging rubric evaluates students on the following categories:

  • research process, strategies, and selection of sources to support the research question and information on the importance of these sources, as space allows on the poster
  • source integration to understand the scholarly conversation on the topic and also to help influence the direction of the research project
  • attribution and consistent citations for any quotes, tables, graphs, photographs, and other content used in the poster that are not the student's own work
  • an understanding of their information privilege and how that informs their research and their role in the information 
    economy

Be prepared to respond to these, or similar, questions:

General

  • What led you to be interested in this topic?

How did you find your information?

  • What were your research questions and how did you decide on them?
  • How did you decide what sources to use?
  • How did you find the information you used?
  • What kind of prior knowledge/bias did you already have about this topic?

How did you use your information?

  • Did any of your sources show you new ways of looking at your topic?
  • How do you think your work adds to the research on this topic?

Did you give credit?

  • What citation style did you choose for this project, and why?
  • How did you find any images you used?

What privilege do you have in being able to access the information you used?

  • How did you access the information you used?
  • Would you have been able to get to all the information you used if you could only have used Google, and couldn't access anything through Penn State?
  • Are there groups that might be affected by your work or similar projects, but can't access it because of the cost? How do you think that affects them?