Library Prize for Undergraduate Research
The newly established Library Prize for Undergraduate Research is an opportunity for current University of Alberta undergraduate students from all disciplines to showcase their outstanding scholarly projects that demonstrate research skills and innovative use of a variety of services and resources provided by the University of Alberta Library. Applying for these prizes gives students a chance to think critically about their research journey, showcase their work to a broader audience, and celebrate undergraduate academic excellence at the University of Alberta.
The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research recognizes exceptional student work that showcases:
- Thoughtful and extensive use of U of A Library’s collections and resources. This can include anything from library books, journals and other media, Bruce Peel Special Collections, U of A Archives, meeting with a librarian or library staff, using library databases, using digital services provided by the library.
- Growth and reflection in the research and information-gathering process
Three prizes will be awarded on an annual basis:
- Individual student award:
- First place: $1250
- Honorable mention: $750
- Group student award:
- First place: $1500 (shared between members of the group)
In addition to winning prize money, winners and their projects will be featured in the library blog and will be showcased in Spectrum. We will also recommend winning submissions for submission to one of the U of A Student Journals. Winning submissions will also be deposited in the University of Alberta Education + Research Archive.
All students currently enrolled in an undergraduate program are eligible to apply. See eligibility criteria for further details about eligibility requirements.
NOTE: The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research Committee reserves the right not to award the prize in a year if the collected submissions are not appropriate or are ineligible. See competition rules for further details.
The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research is organized by the U of A Library.
Questions
For any questions regarding the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research, please contact Megan Kennedy, 2025/26 Chair for Library Prize for Undergraduate Research Committee, please contact the Library Research Prize Committee (resprize@ualberta.ca)
All times are based on Edmonton time (Mountain Standard Time, MST)
- Submissions open November 24, 2025 @ 9:00am
- Submissions close April 24, 2026 @ 12:00pm (all parts of the submission including the project, reflective statement, and instructor statement of support are due by this time)
- Winners to be notified via email, on or before Friday May 22, 2026 @ 12pm
- Winners must respond by May 30th, 2026 @ 9:00am to claim their prize
- Prize money disbursed on or before Friday June 5, 2026
The prize is open to all current U of A undergraduate students. Submissions are welcome in English or French.
A complete submission package includes the original research project or assignment (submitted as an electronic version), instructor statement of support, and personal reflective statement.
Students entering this competition must meet the following criteria to be eligible to submit their work for the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research:
- The student is pursuing their first undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. Students may be in any year of their degree/program
- Full-time and part-time students in any year of study are eligible
- Students may be from any discipline or major from any campus
- Submission must be a project or assignment completed for a course at the University of Alberta in the past one academic year (this includes work completed in Spring/Summer terms)
- E.g., Spring/Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026
- Submission cannot be previously published in other venues (for example student journals, FURCA, etc.) or have been work completed as a Research Assistant (RA), research team with a Faculty supervisor, or other similar type of role
- The project or assignment submitted must have a research component and a bibliography or reference list to be eligible
In addition to the criteria stated above, students must meet the following criteria to be eligible to submit their work for the Library Research Prize for group research:
- All group members must be listed and all group members must be undergraduate students at the time of submission. Projects completed with graduate students, post-doctoral students, faculty, or any others who are not undergraduate students will not be eligible.
IMPORTANT: In order to disburse the prize money, winners must be current U of A students at the time of the award in June (i.e., they must not have graduated or left U of A in order to receive the prize money).
Prizes will be awarded at the discretion of the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research committee. This committee is composed of both librarians and non-librarian members, such as faculty and researchers.
Eligible submissions will be reviewed by using the Evaluation Criteria Rubric. The process will be anonymized, where the reviewers will not be provided with any identifying information for the submissions. Each submission will be reviewed and scored by 2 committee members and the Chair will break any tied scores if needed. A score will be provided for the following elements: Research Project (0-6 points), Reflective Statement (0-6 points). The instructor support form will be used to inform the adjudication process, but it will not be scored.
Students may submit projects or assignments in English or French. However, the submission forms for both students (including the reflective statement) and instructors should be completed in English. When projects or assignments in French are submitted, the committee will consult with French speakers within the Library system to evaluate how extensively library resources were used in the project, and they will provide a brief summary of this for the review of the submission by the judges and committee members.
AI Declaration of Use
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT and other large language models, is becoming common in research. These tools can help with tasks such as brainstorming topics, finding information sources, or improving writing. However, AI cannot be listed as an author because it cannot take responsibility for submitted work. Examples of acceptable AI use may include:
- Research literature searching tools and recommenders
- Tools that help improve typing and grammar
- Tools used to brainstorm and generate ideas, and keywords, and refine topics
- Tools used to generate images or graphics
- Data analysis tools
The application form includes a section that asks whether you used AI in your submission. If you did, you must disclose which tools you used and how you used them. You should also address any use of AI in your reflective statement.
The research prize committee recognizes that, in some cases, you may be permitted or even required to use AI tools in your work. You will not be penalized for responsible and transparent use of AI in your research project. However, you must write the reflective statement in your own words, without using AI.
Please note: To protect authors’ rights and the confidentiality of submissions, prize adjudicators will not use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies, including AI-detection software such as Turnitin.
The AI declaration was adapted with permission from Mount Royal University.
Use the forms linked below to complete your submission:
- Student Form
- Instructor Form (share this link with your instructor to complete)