2021-22 Winners
The Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021-22 Library Research Award. The Award is designed to recognize and reward exemplary library research skills. Students submit a research paper or presentation that they have completed for a PCC course together with reflections on their process. Librarians review the submissions, looking for evidence of excellent research skills and strong information literacy. Information literacy is one of PCC’s General Education Learning Outcomes and an information literate student possesses crucial skills to succeed both in and out of the classroom.
Winners, listed alphabetically below, are each awarded up to 30 credits of tuition to be used before June 30, 2022
Samantha Barrera (January and July winner)
Samantha submitted her paper on the death penalty for her Writing 102 class, taught by Simone Gers. She cited a broad array of relevant sources in her research, ranging from scholarly journal articles and law reviews, to informative newspaper stories and data from reputable websites. Samantha exceeded the requirements of the assignment both in the number of sources cited and in the number of claims supported by those sources. She reflected on her use of several relevant tools and resources and demonstrated the ability to synthesize and integrate her sources in support of her thesis.
Collin Bryant (July winner)
Collin’s paper on an obscure piece of US Drug Policy, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, written for Sandra Shuttuck’s Humanities 260 class, expanded on themes he’d begun to explore in a previous semester’s writing course. Both his research project and his reflections demonstrated his understanding of research as an iterative process. He discussed the challenges in determining the authority of sources and in considering bias, evidencing sophisticated information literacy. Collin took advantage of several Library tools and services to compile his relevant and varied list of sources.
Desiree Gracia (July winner) 
Desiree submitted her paper written for Julia Gousseva’s Writing 102 course. In her piece, she applies modern psychological theories on materialism and class to the characters in author Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace.” Reflecting on her process, Desiree noted her use of a variety of tools and resources, such as databases and encyclopedias. to develop her list of sources cited. She noted the need to evaluate sources and her bibliography is comprised of appropriate and credible sources.
Natasha Kernek (July winner) 
Natasha’s paper exploring portrayals of the mentally ill in children’s animated film and TV programming, written for her Digital Arts 103 course with instructor David Wing, was well supported by a rich array of relevant sources. In her reflection on her process, Natasha described her use of sophisticated search strategies and relevant Library tools and services. She clearly articulated how her assignment met and exceeded assignment expectations.
Clinton Mackillop (January and July winner) 
Clinton’s paper explored issues of technological unemployment in the context of current economic systems for an assignment in his Writing 101 course taught by Sarah O’Hara. His reflections note his savvy use of Library resources despite not having interacted with them previously. He learned the power of limiters to focus his search on peer reviewed sources, resulting in over half of the 25 sources cited being scholarly in nature. Colin demonstrated an understanding of how the authors of scholarly articles refer to each others’ works in a kind of conversation, and sharing of different perspectives, that the student researcher can follow and learn from.
Lauren Redman- (January and July winner) 
Lauren submitted a digital artifact, developed for her History 101 course, taught by Sara Davis. She wrote, produced, narrated and performed in a well researched video on the role of bread in societies throughout history. Her works cited included images, books, and articles from the disciplines of archeology, history, art and biology. In her reflections, she noted a sophisticated use of subject terms in her search results to narrow and refine her search as well as her use of several Library tools and services, including online order and curbside pickup of appropriate print materials.