Library Research Prize Winners Announced

University of Scranton occupational therapy majors Christina Gavalas, Franklin Square, New York, and Marjorie Toron, Marlboro, New Jersey, received The University of Scranton’s 2016 Library Research Prize for Undergraduate Students and Allison Ferullo, Maryland, New York, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the Nurse Anesthesia Program, received 2016 Library Research Prize for Graduate Students.

The University’s Weinberg Memorial Library inaugurated the prize in 2011 to recognize excellence in research projects that show evidence of significant knowledge of research methods and the information gathering process, as well as the use of library resources, tools and services.

Charles E. Kratz, dean of the library and information fluency, announced the 2016 Library Research Prize winners and honorable mention recipients at a reception held in May in the Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library.

The undergraduate category winners, Gavalas and Toron, submitted a literature review that they completed for OT 494: Evidence-Based Research on the efficacy of using weighted vests on children with autism and ADHD. This is the first time that a group project was selected as the library’s prize winner. In their application essay, they noted that an information literacy session by a librarian gave them “a better understanding of how to utilize several different databases to their maximum potential.” They also used the interlibrary loan system to obtain articles that weren’t available full-text in the library’s holdings and the collaborative spaces available in the library for their project. Both students will continue their education at Scranton in the fall as graduate students in the Occupational Therapy Program.

 Honorable Mention awards in the undergraduate category were presented to psychology major Alyssa Rodemann of Bridgewater, New Jersey; English major Emily Pocius of Moscow, and finance major Tim Zinna of Tappan, New York.

Ferullo, the graduate category winner, completed an individual project for NURS 593: Research Methodology, which was a literature review on distractions in the operating room. Ferullo earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hartwick College, where she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society. She worked in the ICUs at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. She is certified as a Critical Care Registered Nurse and is also certified in Trauma Nursing Critical Care.