Library Hosts 14th Annual Taste of Research Event

Months before the library hosts Taste of Research every fall, our resources and staff play a key role during the different research stages. Several students commented on how helpful the librarians and the online databases were in supporting their research needs over the summer.

Miranda Pikaart, who did extensive research on advertising in the tobacco industry before 1900, even provided a shout out to the library in her research book. Pikaart traveled to different colleges, including Duke, to explore their archive collection of baseball-like cards that used to be included in packs and traded. She also used the Meredith online databases to track how the tobacco industry’s concern has morphed from one of social segregation to health issues. An interesting fact she noted was when she searched our online articles for health warnings for smoking, she found 12 in 1964 and then 12,000 after that year warning people about the dangers of smoking.

Hannah Squires mentioned she used the online databases while conducting a study on if music affects social interactions with autistic children. Even though research has been done to support music as helpful in increasing socialization, Squires’ field research surprised her in that sessions where music was played did not appear effective in increasing communication between peers at Meredith’s Inclusive Preschool. She speculated that the music may have been overstimulating for the children.

Macy Allen’s Visual Literature: Writers and their Work is a beautiful series of author sketches. Allen collaborated with the English department to find out who are their favorite authors. After picking their top choices, she incorporated quotes from the artist in the stunning portraits she created. At the end of the article is a list of authors and their works she took inspiration from and you can too since we have many of the works available in the library.

As a campus, Meredith College educates women and teaches them to have lives of impact. Mary Kolisnichenko’s research project proved just how important it is that women run for, and win, political offices. Women are underrepresented in political offices across the state and country. With the lack of diversity, comes lack of budgeting allocations for different issues. Kolisnichenko’s research showed how when women are in the majority there is a direct correlation to an increase in spending on education.

There were many other excellent projects focusing on chemistry, wildlife, local communities, religion, literature and feminism. Taste of Research is wonderful way to celebrate our students’ research. If you are interested in researching a topic that interests you, please visit the library homepage to get started or contact the library liaison for your subject area.