Encouraged by  the Trenholme Dean  of  Libraries, Dr. Guylaine Beaudry, the Student Library Awards were established by the Friends of the Libraries in 2025 to promote the use of library services and information resources in undergraduate projects.
The awards are presented to undergraduate students who best demonstrate their use of library services and resources in the creation of a research project, lab report, critically appraised topic, creative work or other coursework and who demonstrate an excellent understanding of the connection between their research and these library services and resources.
Important dates
- Application Window Opens: February 24, 2025
- Application Deadline: March 18, 2025
- Award Notifications: April 18, 2025
 Award categories
Humanities, Social Sciences, Music, Law, and Management
- 2 prizes of $1000 each
Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- 2 prizes of $1000 each
Students will submit:
- a project completed for a course or supervised research project;
- an essay or video detailing how they used library services and/or resources and their importance in the creation of the project;
- a letter of recommendation from the project advisor, thesis advisor, or course instructor.
Submission requirements:
The contest is open to all currently enrolled undergraduate students whose projects meet the following requirements:
- Projects must be completed for a credit-bearing course or supervised research project during the current academic cycle (spring/summer 2024; fall 2024; winter 2025 semesters).
- Projects must integrate library research.
- Projects and accompanying essay or video may be in any electronic format
- Projects must be recommended in writing by a project advisor, thesis advisor, or course instructor.
- Projects may be completed in any medium (e.g., paper, video, painting, photograph, website, mobile application, etc.). However, all projects must be submitted online for consideration. Therefore, an electronic version of the project must be available for submission (e.g., PDF for paper, MP4 for video, JPG/TIFF for a painting or photograph, URL for website, etc.)
- Foreign-language projects are eligible. However, the application essay must be written in English or French.
- Projects completed by an individual or group are eligible. However, awards are presented to individuals, not to a group. Therefore, each group member must submit a separate essay outlining not only their use of library services and/or resources, but also their specific contribution to the group project. A separate letter of recommendation for each group member is also required.
- Senior thesis, honours thesis, and capstone project applicants may submit a representative sample of their project for consideration to meet the deadline; however, the final version of the project must be submitted to the Selection Committee by 11:59pm (EST) the day before the award ceremony. Any award winner who has not submitted a final version of their project by this deadline will forfeit their award.
Winners will be awarded a cash prize and have their winning project preserved in  , ɬÀ﷬’s institutional repository. Winners will be asked to briefly present their research at an awards ceremony held the last week of April.
Application steps
Submit the following:
1. Research project or creative work (e.g., Word doc or PDF for paper, MP4 for video, JPG/TIFF for a painting or photograph, URL for website, etc.)
- This project must have been completed for a credit-bearing course or supervised project during the current academic cycle (spring/summer 2024; fall 2024; and winter 2025 semesters) and must integrate library research.
- Save file as: 2025_ FirstNameInitialLastName_project (e.g., 2025_JTrudeau_project)
2. An essay (700-1,000 words) or video (5-7 minutes) in English or French
- Include the following points:
- Name the resources and/or services of the ɬÀï·¬ Library and how you used them in the creation of your project. Focus on the unique contributions and impact made by these resources on your project.
- Describe how these resources and/or services connect to your research question, research process and/or inquiry method.
- Demonstrate your understanding of the connection between library services and information resources and the research process.
- Save file as: 2025_FirstNameInitialLastName_essay OR 2025_ FirstNameInitialLastName_video (e.g., 2025_JTrudeau_essay OR 2025_JTrudeau_video)
3. Ask your Advisor or Instructor to Write and Submit a Letter of Recommendation
- Ask your project advisor, thesis advisor, or course instructor to write and submit a letter of recommendation in support of your research project or creative work.
- Share the Guidelines for Recommendation Letter with your Instructor or Advisor.
- Note: It is your responsibility to ensure that your advisor submits the letter of recommendation before the deadline. If your advisor’s letter of recommendation is not received by the due date, your application is not eligible for consideration, even if your component was received on time.
[For Advisor/Instructor] Guidelines for Recommendation Letter
- The recommendation should address the following:
- Briefly describe the nature of your role as an advisor/supervisor of the student's project;
- Comments on the quality of the research and the depth of inquiry demonstrated by the student's project;
- How the student's use of library services and/or resources (such as physical collections, electronic collections, special collections, librarians, etc.) contributes to the outcome of this project.
- Save file as: 2025_StudentFirstNameInitialLastName_Recommendation (e.g., 2025_JTrudeau_Recommendation)