The Library Awards

Posted by Cris Galvez in Students

On April 7, the winners of Fogelson Library’s research paper contest were announced. Austin Hanna, Anthony Liparulo and Crystal Lyman were the recipients. All three are second semester freshmen; Hanna and Lyman are digital arts and animation (DABD) majors, and Liparulo is a film major.

Librarian Margaret Van Dyk first heard about the library-sponsored research paper contest in 2011.

“A contributing faculty told me that her son was a recipient at his college, which was in Colorado,” Van Dyk says. “She was very excited—her son was very excited.”

After that, Van Dyk was pleased to find a lot of other institutions were giving out research paper awards to students and decided it would be a good idea for Santa Fe University of Art Design to start doing the same. While some institutions award writing competencies to juniors and seniors, other institutions showcase freshman skills, which is something Van Dyk agreed with.

“I thought the winners would serve as models for good academic work and instill a standard within the student community,” Van Dyk says.

Margaret Van Dyk standing in front of the Library Wall of Fame. Photo by Richard Sweeting

Because of this, only freshmen are allowed to enter the contest. Additionally, entry nominations usually come from writing roundtable instructors who see potential in their students’ paper. This was the case with both Hanna and Lyman, whose writing roundtable instructors encouraged them to enter their papers in the contest after grading them.

“The courses have different focuses, but they all have the same requirements,” Van Dyk says. “Every student has to conduct research, use library resources, and write a paper using the MLA format.”

Research paper topics vary depending on the subject the writing roundtable class is covering. Hanna wrote his paper about Pixar’s latest movie “Inside Out” and its accuracy about what actually goes on inside the human mind from a nueroscientific standard, whereas Liparulo wrote his paper on the deep web.

The contest winners were chosen by five committee members who read each contest submission from a blind packet. The papers are judged on a rubric scale that grades the students on their thesis, supporting details, unity, coherence, mechanics, style, documentation and source material. After the papers are read, the rubric scores are tallied and the students with the highest scores win. The contest winners are then invited into the library to get their pictures taken for the wall of fame, which is located right outside of Van Dyk’s office.

Lyman, the contest’s third place winner who wrote her paper on racism in the criminal justice system, was very surprised that she’d won.

“I was really shocked,” she says. “I think I was proud of myself, but more shocked initially.”

Lyman had wanted to write her paper on all forms of discrimination in the criminal justice system, but decided it would be too impractical because of how long it would make the paper. As the third place winner, she received a $100 cash reward for her efforts. Liparulo received $200, and Hanna received $300.

The Research Paper Library Awards are held twice a year. The submission date for spring semester of 2016 is May 13 at 5pm. For more information, please visit: Research Paper Award