Murphy Library News

Murphy Library Student Workers Present Their Undergraduate Research

Murphy Library had two student workers who presented their research at the most recent UWL Research & Creativity Symposium. Because they say it better than we do, we interviewed them:

Please tell us about your research--the what, when, how, who?

Megan: "I studied the manifestation of treponemal disease (a type of disease that includes syphilis) in human skeletons from medieval England. I did this by looking at fourteen cases that were described in six different publications. Treponemal disease can be tricky to diagnose, earning it the nickname "the great mimicker". I wanted to test a newer set of diagnostic criteria to see if it was effective."

Adeline: "I conducted a survey in four EDS:206 classes to see if undergraduate education majors would find a new picture book search system for the Alice Hagar Curriculum Collection useful. This new search system was made using data collected during a previous research project I worked on with Librarian Teri Holford. In that research project over 5,000 picture books were meticulously hand coded on over 60 different criteria. That data was used to create statistics that help decision making when it comes to development of library metadata. Additionally, that data was used to create the search system I interviewed undergraduate majors about. Overall, the search system was an overwhelming success with students.

Tell us how you got interested and involved with this research?

Megan: "I knew that I wanted to do research on medieval medicine, and the presence of syphilis in the Old World before Columbus's voyages kept being briefly mentioned in the resources I was reading. Osteology (the study of bones), human burials, pathology, and the spread and understanding of disease across the centuries are all interests of mine, and my thesis topic was a perfect blend of all four."

Adeline: "Through conversation! While working with Teri Holford at Special Collections we began discussing children's literature, and we found we both had a deep passion for the subject. She was starting a bigger research project that involved hand coding all 5296 picture books, so I became involved with that, which led to my own undergraduate research project."

Please tell us what the research means to you personally, and how it might affect you in the future?

Megan: "In addition to improving my writing and research skills, my research allowed me to apply and expand on what I learned in the human osteology course I took at UWL. I am going to graduate school for anthropology, so I am hoping that getting practice working with descriptions of skeletons will help me with my biological anthropology, which deals with human skeletons."

Adeline: "I was able to learn and grow into a better academic researcher through this process, and feel very confident in taking on more undergraduate research projects in the future. I found doing research in an area mildly unrelated to my major (History and Archeology) allowed me to have a better appreciated for how connected higher academia is."

Any other take-aways from this research experience?

Megan: "I am grateful for the guidance of my thesis professor, Dr. Nicodemus, and my thesis advisors, Dr. McAndrews and Dr. Arzigian. I am also thankful to Dr. William Agger for medical insights into the clinical side of treponemal disease. Dr. Ned Farley at WLC helped me to form my thesis and allowed me to handle a specimen with syphilis, which I am very grateful for."

Adeline: "I found the most important lesson to be written by a student I surveyed "Diverse children's books are extremely important as we don't have one type of student.”