Image of Research: Celebrating and Sharing Undergraduate Work

In 2013 and 2015 respectively, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) and the University of Kansas (KU) implemented an Image of Research competition, a library-led initiative designed to showcase original research of undergraduate students. The Image of Research competition is a multidisciplinary competition celebrating the diversity and breadth of undergraduate student research by inviting students to submit entries consisting of an image and brief text that articulates how the image relates to their research. The work of the students is shared widely and archived in the institutional repository, providing students with an easy-entry experience to “publishing” their research. Additionally, students are rewarded with monetary and category prizes. The goals for Image of Research are threefold: (1) Provide students with an opportunity to reflect on what their research means to them and how to represent that research in a visual manner. (2) Proactively engage with undergraduate students as creators of information. (3) Address educational issues around scholarly communication by designing learning opportunities that help students confront the complexities of copyright and their online presence. At Illinois, project personnel were inspired by the University of Chicago Library’s Image of Research competition, established in 2008), and KU began their competition after reading about Illinois in a column for C&RL News outlining examples of the intersections of scholarly communication and information literacy. Both libraries were looking for avenues to engage with undergraduate students participating in high-impact educational practices as part of wider information literacy and outreach goals.