Monday, February 22, 2010
Li

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is calling all book-collecting students to enter its first Student Book Collection Competition. The contest is sponsored by the CLAS, University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, and the Center for the Book.

Currently enrolled students may compete in the following categories:

1. The CLAS Award for the Best Book Collection Submitted by an Undergraduate Student
2. The Special Collections Award for the Best Other-Than-Book Collection Submitted by an Undergraduate Student
3. The Center for the Book Award for Most Creative and Most Creatively Described Collection by an Undergraduate or Graduate Student

Winning entries will be displayed in the University’s Main Library. Prizes will take the form of monetary awards or gift certificates to Prairie Lights and Murphy-Brookfield Used Books.
Each contestant must submit the following:
For the CLAS Award for the Best Book Collection Submitted by an Undergraduate Student and the Special Collections Award for the Best Other-Than-Book Collection Submitted by an Undergraduate Student:

  • A brief 250-word essay about the collection
  • A bibliographic description of the collection (25-50 physical objects)

For the Center for the Book Award for the Most Creative and Most Creatively Described Collection by an Undergraduate or Graduate Student:

  • A 500-2000 word essay about a collection. The essay can describe a collection that is entirely imaginary; contestants do not need to have actually collected any of the objects mentioned.

Essays and bibliographies must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 26th, 2010.
Semi-finalists in the Book and Other-Than-Book contests may be asked to appear before the judges with at least ten representative items from their collections.
Essays, bibliographies and a cover sheet should be sent to as a single MS Word document to rawan-alkhatib@uiowa.edu. For more information and competition requirements, see the Book Collection Competition website.

Media contact: Rawan Alkhatib, rawan-alkhatib@uiowa.edu