The Sweren Student Book Collecting Contest has extended its application deadline to Monday, February 29th!
The Betty and Edgar Sweren Student Book Collecting Contest recognizes the love of books and the delight in shaping a thoughtful and focused book collection. All undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a degree program at Johns Hopkins are eligible to enter.
Did we mention prizes?
The competition includes graduate and undergraduate divisions, with the following awards:
• $1,000 First Place • $500 Second Place • $250 Honorable Mention • A display of selected titles from the winning collections in Special Collections in the Brody Learning Commons
• A one-year honorary membership in the Friends of the Johns Hopkins Libraries.
Awards will be presented to the winners in the spring of 2016.
Criteria
Each entry will be judged on the extent to which the items in the collection form a coherent pattern of inquiry and/or represent a well-defined field of interest. Additionally, consideration will be given to how well the collection reflects the student’s stated goals and interests.
Guidelines:
1. Any student, undergraduate or graduate, enrolled in a degree program at the Johns Hopkins University is eligible to enter.
2. All items must be owned and collected by the student who enters the contest.
3. A collection need not consist of, or include, rare or valuable books. Paper-bound books may be included.
4. Although the focus is books, the collection may include other media that supports the collection.
5. Collections can be on any subject. Nonacademic subjects are welcome (past entries include Colonial America, Feminism, Running, Music, and more).
Application Information:
Each contestant must submit:
1. A cover sheet including the title of your collection.
2. A 2-3 page essay outlining: The purpose of the collection, how you started the collection, how the collection was assembled, the items of greatest interest, and ideas for the collection’s future development.
3. A bibliography of 20 or more items (maximum of 50) in the collection. Each item should be numbered, given a full bibliographic description, and briefly annotated as to its importance to the collection. Please use the Chicago Manual of Style.
4. A wish list: A second bibliography listing up to 10 items that you would like to add to your collection, with brief annotation stating the reason for adding each item.
5. Submit as one PDF document including your cover sheet.
*Finalists may be asked to bring a portion of their book collection to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library for final judging. The winning entries will be displayed in the Brody Learning Commons. First place winners of the Sweren contest are also eligible to enter the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), and the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.
The EXTENDED deadline to enter is Monday, February 29, 2016.
Last Year’s Sweren Student Book Collecting Contest Winning Entries:
1st Place, Undergraduate Category: Gillian Marie Waldo, “Everything You Can Imagine is Real.” An introduction to graphic novels
1st Place (tie), Graduate Category: Jean-Olivier Richard, A Jesuit’s Tree of Knowledge
1st Place (tie), Graduate Category: Justin Kyle Rivest, “Seeing Home From Abroad: The World along the Detroit River, 1670 to present
2nd Place, Graduate Category: Marina Escolano Poveda, The Library of Babel
2nd Place, Graduate Category: Shannon Alt, Volumes of Wonder: From Fairy Tales to Faraday
Submit all entries to:
Sweren Student Book Collecting Contest Dean’s Office/Milton S. Eisenhower Library Johns Hopkins University 3400 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 or via e-mail: libraryfriends@jhu.edu or by fax: (410) 516-5080
Please direct any questions to Shellie Dolan at 410-516-8992 or libraryfriends@jhu.edu