History and nursing students earn USCA library awards

“As a teaching library, our focus is on helping students navigate the ever-evolving information environment by teaching them not only how to find information, but how to think critically about it and use it effectively,” said Dr. Lisa Ennis, dean of the library. “The University Library Committee created these awards to recognize students who have gone beyond finding information to truly engage with all aspects of the research process, such as Alexa and Caroline.” 

The Undergraduate Library Research Award aims to recognize and celebrate academic excellence among USCA students who demonstrate significant use of the Gregg-Graniteville Library’s collections, resources, and services. This award seeks to highlight students’ abilities to engage in scholarly or creative projects, showcasing their critical analysis and research skills through a reflective essay on the research process. 

“The award celebrates the integration of library resources into the research process of our students,” said Dr. Ángel Rañales, Spanish professor and chair of the Library Committee. 

Each recipient will be recognized during the Academic Honors Ceremony in May and will receive $250. The Gregg-Graniteville Endowed Library Fund supports the award. 

Wright earned her award for the research she conducted for a paper written for an anthropology course. “The Graniteville Manufacturing Company’s Textile Worker Strike of October 1933” highlighted social movements and change at a local mill not far from the university. 

“Searching the Gregg-Graniteville Archives’ finding aids supplied me with an absolute gold-mine of information: a scrapbook of newspapers from the time period chronicling the events of the strike,” she said. 

“I found a plethora of primary source material, including firsthand accounts from individuals on the front lines of the protests. I used the information in this scrapbook as a framework around which to build my case. To do this, I worked to prove the legitimacy of the information provided in the scrapbook by finding corroborating information in other Graniteville Company administrative documents.” 

Wright combed through the archives for accounting records from the time period to compare the average Graniteville Company worker’s pay with the average pay for textile workers at the time.  

“What I ended up finding provided more insight than I could have hoped for,” she said. 

“I would have been completely incapable of completing this assignment if not for the materials made available by the Gregg-Graniteville Library and Archives.” 

While working on her senior capstone project, Carnahan explored people-pleasing tendencies among prelicensure nursing students through a cross-sectional survey-based study.  

The research process required gathering background literature, creating and distributing an original survey, data collection, analyzing descriptive statistics, group differences, identifying correlations of variables, and will conclude with dissemination and possibly publication.  

“The Gregg-Graniteville Library's collections, databases, workshops, tools, and academic librarians were invaluable at every stage of conducting high-quality, evidence-based research,” she said. 

“I relied on the library's access to nursing and health sciences databases. Nursing liaison librarian Professor Deborah Harmon made support easy and consistent. She visited all our writing-intensive nursing classes in person, offered on-the-spot help, held office hours in the nursing building, and was always available for one-on-one appointments.” 

Carnahan credits the library’s workshops, drop-in availability, and welcoming staff for her research confidence, which has strengthened during her time on campus. 

“They showed me how to find, evaluate, and use information effectively — skills essential for evidence-based nursing. In short, the university library turned a complex capstone into a structured and well-supported project.  

“I am beyond grateful for the Gregg-Graniteville library’s guidance and empowerment to apply strong research habits throughout my academic and professional nursing career.” 

A panel of Library Committee members and one representative from the library evaluates the award submissions.  They examine the project's quality, research depth, library resources used and students' reflections on the research process.  

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