WVU Libraries prepares students to become creative problem solvers, successful researchers

From high school seniors to doctoral-level graduate students, West Virginia University Libraries is teaching students to leverage their curiosity into creative problem-solving and next-level research skills.   

Through two of its summer programs that focus on hands-on, experiential learning and multidisciplinary engagement, students explored new ideas, conducted research, and discovered how their questions could lead them somewhere unexpected.  

As part of the annual Governor’s Honors Academy, the West Virginia and Regional History Center gave the rising high school seniors an opportunity to experience being digital archivists.  

The course, Mountaineer Metadata for West Virginia History, gave students an opportunity to find archival materials they personally connected with while learning how library and archival items, particularly books and photographs, are made accessible and discoverable online. 

Taught by Instruction and Public Services Archivist Bridget Jamison, the course introduced students to foundational archival skills while helping make West Virginia history more visible to the world. The activities also challenged students to exercise creative problem-solving and resilience, skills that are essential to research.

“The diversity of West Virginia life represented in our collection gives us endless opportunities for connecting young people to history,” Jamison said.  

"The diversity of West Virginia life represented in our collection gives us endless opportunities for connecting young people to history."Bridget jamison

In early August, Libraries hosted its Graduate Student Library Immersion Program, a three-day on-campus experience that equips new and returning graduate students with essential research skills. The program combines hands-on activities with instruction, with a focus on resources, methods, and tools that build practical research skills that can be immediately applied in students' graduate work and beyond. 

Program sessions explore scholarly identity and developing authority as a scholar, encouraging students to consider how they want to be perceived within their disciplines and throughout their careers. 

Open to graduate students from any field of study, the environment also offers participants an opportunity to step outside their own programs and connect with peers they may not otherwise encounter. One graduate student noted that it can be easy to become “very siloed” within a program of study. 

“I’m in the psych program, but I’m making friends in public history and communication and all these different areas,” Cassie Hileman, graduate student and program participant, said. “I might never have even spoken to them if I hadn't taken the opportunity to come here.”

The program also encourages students to look beyond the research methods most familiar to their own disciplines. Jacqueline Seymour, a second-year Ph.D. student in communication studies, said the experience expanded her understanding of what can serve as research data. 

“It was really neat to see that not everything has to be an interview and a survey question, but we can look at our archives and images and that sort of data, too,” Seymour said. 

For other students, the program helped make the research process feel more accessible. Melina Danko, a second-year Ph.D. student in communication studies, returned to graduate school after years of working professionally and wanted to refresh her knowledge of library research and current resources. 

“I like that it took it from 30,000 feet above me to something within reach, something that’s understandable,” she said. 

From Assistant University Librarian Jenn Monin’s perspective, programs like the Libraries’ are essential to student—and lifelong—success.  

“These students are our next generation of researchers and leading experts in their respective fields,” Monnin said. “By developing these skills early on, they have the potential to make a lasting impact throughout their careers. 

"I believe this has ripple effects that extend far beyond their time at WVU."