Library Prize for Undergraduate Research wins

Contact: Megan Bielefeld
ACRL Program Coordinator
312-280-2514

mbielefeld@ala.org

For Immediate Release
February 18, 2005

Library Prize for Undergraduate Research wins 2005 IS Innovation in Instruction award

CHICAGO-- The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research at the University of California, Berkeley, has been chosen to receive the 2005 ACRL Instruction Section (IS) Innovation in Instruction award. Sponsored by Lexis-Nexis, the annual award recognizes a project that demonstrates creative, innovative, or unique approaches to information literacy instruction.

"The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research provides a scaleable model for promoting and assessing information literacy," said Kendra Van Cleave, IS award committee chair.
"It broadens understanding of information literacy, promotes research and the university's libraries, and acknowledges the wide range of stakeholders involved across campus.
Furthermore, it brings teaching faculty and librarians together to assess student information literacy skills, while at the same time providing a subtle method to instill information literacy values among both teaching faculty and students."

The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research recognizes excellence in undergraduate research projects that incorporate the use of library collections and demonstrate sophisticated information literacy skills.
Along with the research paper and a letter of faculty support, students must submit a research essay that describes their research process.
A committee made up of teaching faculty and librarians reviews the submissions and selects the winner using criteria based on established information literacy standards.
Along with other publicity, the library exhibits highlights from award winning projects.
More information is available on the Library Prize website:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/researchprize/.

A prize of $3,000 and a plaque will be presented to the committee members during the 2005 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago at the IS program on Sunday, June 26, 2005, at 1:30 p.m.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians.
Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.