2020-08-25 Library Announces 2020 Winners of the Showalter Research Award: Home

The Legacy Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019-20 Kenneth E. Showalter '50 Special Collections Research Award.

For this year, two research projects were nominated for the Showalter Award. Both were selected as co-winners by the award committee:

• Madison McCormick. "Brick by Brick, Change by Change: The Marietta College Campus" — a Research Paper nominated by Dr. Matthew Young for a Summer 2019 Investigative Studies project.

In his nomination, Dr. Young wrote, "In my twenty years at MC, I have never had a student make more extensive use of MC Special Collections. Madison McCormick researched and wrote a comprehensive history of the physical changes of the college's campus from its origins into the 21st century using a wide variety of materials. She successfully completed the project, and has since shared it with a wide audience. She developed an online map/tour which is now linked to the Alumni Relations website, and led her own tours during Homecoming weekend."

• Carter Lang. "From Around the Valley: The Flood of 1913 ‘Ohio's Greatest Weather Disaster’" — an Information Graphic Poster nominated by Prof. Sara Rosenstock for a GRPH 250: Information Design project.

In her nomination, Prof. Rosenstock wrote, "Carter Lang went beyond the requirements of this research and design project. He spent a lot of time reviewing materials in the Special Collections and engaged the librarians to find content that was not already curated for him. I think he did an excellent job editing the content in a way that does not overwhelm the reader, as well as contextualizes the content in a way that makes the objective of the content apparent."

About the Award

This cash award is presented annually to an undergraduate or graduate student who authors the best research project using the primary sources of the Slack Research Collections of the Legacy Library. It is funded by the Kenneth E. Showalter ’50 Special Collections Memorial Endowment, established in 2010 by Robert and Shirley Showalter.

To be eligible for consideration:

1. The submission must be a completed work in any form, for example, research paper, web site, presentation, video documentary, masters thesis, etc.
2. It must present the original scholarly contribution of the author.
3. It must have been completed while the author was a student, undergraduate or graduate, at Marietta College during the current academic year (or the preceding summer) and in connection with coursework at the college.
4. It can be in any field of study, but must be based largely or entirely on sources held in the Slack Research Collections of Legacy Library.

The selection process followed a blind review standard in which information identifying the author of the project was removed prior to consideration. The award committee this year was composed of: Dr. Janet Bland, Provost; Dr. Douglas Anderson, Director of the Legacy Library; and Mr. Joe Straw, Reference and Instruction Librarian.