Library Research Scholars Program (LRSP)

Welcome

The Library Research Scholars Program (LRSP) is designed to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to gain direct experience with an original or guided research project. Working closely with a faculty librarian mentor, the student scholar will create and complete a research project to present to SJSU faculty, administrators, and donors. Research projects are also published in SJSU ScholarWorks, the university's institutional repository.

The Library Research Scholars Program is fully funded by generous supporters. With their help, SJSU King Library is able to provide undergraduate students the experience of developing and executing an original research project of their choosing.

Importance of Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate research is considered a high-impact education practice by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, particularly for minority and underrepresented populations (Nagda et al., 1998; Caraballo-Cueto et al., 2023). Undergraduate research provides many benefits for participating students, including an increase in GPA (Fechheimer et al., 2011) and development of research skills such as public speaking and data analysis (Bauer and Bennett, 2003). Research shows an increased interest in graduate school (Hathaway et al., 2002; Kremer and Bringle, 1990) for students participating in undergraduate research. 

Components of LRSP

Students in the LRSP will participate in a 3 semester-long, four-part program:

• Cohort Meetings (Weekly): All students in the program will attend a weekly cohort meeting (time to be determined based on student schedules). The weekly meetings will teach students the skills needed to create, carry out, and complete a research project to present to an audience. 
• Mentorship and Work Experience: All students will be matched with a librarian faculty member, who will serve as their mentor. Students will complete their research project under the guidance of this librarian.
• Library Meet & Greet and LRSP Showcase: Once the program starts, scholars will present to the library & program donors at the Library Meet & Greet to introduce their research project. The LRSP Showcase is a capstone event hosted by the University Library where each student will describe their experience and present their research project to library administration, faculty, and staff, library donors, and the mentor’s friends and family. 
• Final Product of Research: In consultation with a librarian faculty mentor, each student will develop or work on a project that results in an intellectual product. The range of products is broad including, but not limited to, traditional written projects such as a scholarly paper or written creative work, and digital products such as videos or other digital media. The Scholars will have the opportunity to enter their product in the annual SJSU Student Research competition hosted by the Office of Research. Scholars will deposit their final product into SJSU ScholarWorks and guide interested students through the publication process. 

Contacts

Program Administrator, Dr. Anamika Megwalu

anamika.megwalu@sjsu.edu