The LIRG Student Award for 2011 for best dissertation went to Thomas Muggleton, a student at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Strathclyde University, for his study entitled "The effect of homelessness on information access, identity formation and social interaction". The judges commented:
"An original piece of research that has relevance to the profession and has practical application"
The Award is for £300. A short paper based on this dissertation will appear in a future issue of our journal, Library and Information
Research.
The Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) awards a student research prize each year for a research-based project. Typically it will be a Postgraduate dissertation or a final year Undergraduate project. Each type will be given appropriate consideration. Each School of Library and Information Studies is invited to nominate one of their students' projects for the award.
LIRG offers the prize to promote a greater awareness amongst students of the importance of research and to facilitate the dissemination of the results of outstanding projects.
LIRG, in conjunction with JIBS, offers this award to promote a greater awareness amongst students of the importance of research and to facilitate the dissemination of the results of outstanding projects. The JIBS competition focuses on the area of library information systems, bibliographic databases or other resource discovery technologies and how such resources or technologies are being developed or exploited.
Previous winners of the award have included:
- Johanna Anderson - University of the West of England: Library Aid to Developing Countries: A case study investigating how a Western literary library model is integrated into a Sub-Saharan African oral culture within the Malawian primary education system (LIRG Award) and Nicky Ransom - University of Aberystwyth: Facets of user assigned tags and their effectiveness in image retrieval (JIBS Award)
- Christina Ritchie, University of Strathclyde: Self perceived status of school librarians (2009)
- Harmut Schwamm, Loughborough University: National libraries marketing orientation (2009)
- Joanna Bryant, Loughborough University: An ethnographic study of user behavior in Open3 at the Pilkington Library (2008)
- Catherine Parkinson, Loughborough University: Website accessibility statements; a comparative investigation of local government and high street sectors (2007)
- Neil Parkinson, City University: What's so special about special collections? (2006)
LIRG STUDENT PRIZE: Procedures and Conditions
1. Prizes will be awarded to students completing courses leading to a first professional qualification recognised by CILIP in Schools/Departments of Library and Information Studies.
2. The value of the award is £300.
3. The work of one student may be submitted by each of the Schools/Departments of Library and Information Studies with a short (no more than 200/300 word) supporting recommendation.
4. The closing date for submission is 29 June 2012. Work completed and assessed in the past twelve months is eligible.
5. Projects to be submitted shall be ones completed as part of normal course requirements in a course leading to a first professional qualification and shall be of the level which might be called "dissertation", "major project", etc.
6. Research is to be interpreted broadly but must include some original work.
7. A Panel will be appointed by the Library and Information Research Group to judge entries and award prizes. The Panel's decision will be final. The Panel will publish a general summary of the strengths and weaknesses of entries in order to encourage the quality of student research.
8. The Library and Information Research Group will from time to time publish a set of criteria for the judging of entries.
9. Prize winners shall agree to:
9.1. Give a short presentation on their projects at a special LIRG meeting, when the prizes will be awarded;
9.2. Write a short summary for the LIRG journal Library and Information Research
10. LIRG may wish to negotiate publication rights with the prize winner's department or school. Alternatively, LIRG will advise prize winners on the publication of suitable work.
11. Applicants should be residents of the UK or Ireland.
12. Applications should be sent by email or on a CD.
Applications and enquiries should be sent by email, to:
Alison Brettle
LIRG Awards and Prizes Co-ordinator
A.Brettle@salford.ac.uk
Telephone: 0161 295 0447
Judging Criteria
1. Quality and design of research
a. Have the objectives been clearly stated?
b. Have the objectives been met?
c. Is the background information sufficiently explanatory?
d. Is the literature search thorough and analytical?
e. Are the topic and the problems associated with it, clearly explained and understood?
f. Have relevant ethical issues been identified and addressed?
g. Is the methodology (including and statistical techniques used):
i. Appropriate?
ii. Understood?
iii. Correctly applied?
h. Has the proposition been well argued?
i. Are the conclusions consistent with the findings?
2. Quality of Presentation
a. Is the report well presented in terms of:
i. Clarity
ii. Layout
iii. Readability?
b. Is good use made of:
i. Diagrams
ii. Supporting illustrations?
3. Originality - does the work show evidence of originality
4. Other Comments
5. Is the work:
a. Of professional relevance
b. Applicable to Practice