Congratulations to Mya Jones, winner of the 2023 Friends of the Library Scholarship. Jones is currently in her sophomore year of her undergraduate studies in both Psychology and Communications, and she is on track to graduate in the Spring of 2025.
Jones’ essay was chosen for her response to the following prompt:
How did you use library resources and services to complete a project, and what did they add to your work?
Within my first year of being at UMKC, I was assigned one of the biggest essays I had ever had to write. I was requested to research a topic of my choice, discover a niche part of that topic, and fill it. Excited about such a major assignment, I put my all into it and decided on the topic of the Final girl trope and the small nuance that both have created it, and evolved it, as well as how they tie into the portrayal of gender roles. It was a massive task to take on, but the various resources of the library made the research traversable and the essay one of my best works to date. The tools that came to my rescue the most were the librarians, the navigable website, and the vast amount of books provided in both the second floor and robot.
One of the first resources I decided to use from the library was its website. The catalog was easy to navigate and I was able to find a plethora of resources, both physical items and online sources. Many of the online journals I found in the catalog contributed greatly to my paper and gave me plenty of ideas. Just putting in the keyword ‘Final Girl’ gave me many options to choose from. The format that it is arranged in made it prompt to search through the results and determine if it would be useful for my research. I could do this all from the comfort of my current writing space, which made the writing process go uninterrupted and smooth.
However, there were times that I needed a physical book for my paper. I was able to find a section on horror films specifically. It was not difficult to locate and was filled with interesting books that both covered the subject I needed, but also some closely related subjects that I plan on looking into in the future. Whatever I could not find on the second floor, I knew I could request from the robot or from another school. This was a huge anxiety reliever, as I knew there were plenty of resources for me to work from. When I could not find my originally intended choice, there was another one that would work just as well.
I also learned that the librarians at Miller Nichols were dependable, resourceful, and kind. Although the interaction was short, the research consultation gave me enough to work with when I was stuck and helped me both brainstorm and find the books I needed to get back into my writing groove. I had also been in a class where a librarian kindly taught us all the basics of using the site and answered our questions clearly within a one hour session. This was great for me, as at the time, I was fresh into the college experience, and had little knowledge on what tools I had at my hands.
Overall, my experience with the library has been great. There are an abundance of resources to use including plenty of books, librarians, and the online catalog. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that there are so many reliable options that are available almost twenty-four seven. The opportunity to do so is amazing for students and I will continue to use these great resources in the future.
This unedited essay is published as it was submitted.
