Cornell University Library Book Collection Contest

Collegiate Book-Collection Championship

First Prize winners in our Book Collection Contest automatically qualify to compete in the Collegiate Book Collecting Championship, established by Fine Books & Collections Magazine in 2006.

Cornell students have had great success in the first two years of this international competition among the top-prize winners from the over 40 collegiate book collecting contests held annually.

In 2007, two Cornell University graduate students received honors in the Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship.

Diana Looser was awarded second place, for her collection of published and typescript editions Looser of the plays of Oceania. She won $1000, a trip to the awards dinner in Seattle, and a donation of $500 was made in her name to the Cornell University library.

Read Diana's profile in Find Books & Collections magazine.

From Biblio.com -- Collegiate Book Collecting Contest: Speaking with Diana Looser

Brent Morris, who tied for First Prize in our Cornell Graduate Student competition, received an honorable mention for his collection on abolitionistsin the international contest. The 2007 September/October issue of Fine Books & Collections magazine includes photographs and interviews with the prize winners and an excerpt from the top-prize winner's essay about his collection.

Cornell Chronicle -- Grad students honored in book collecting contest

Cornell Daily Sun -- C.U. Book Collection Contest Attracts Diversity in Entries

In 2006, our two graduate students, who also tied for 1st prize in our local contest, won 1st and 3rd prizes in the first annual championship. Selected as two of five finalists in a blind judging, where the judges did not know the names or universities of the contestants, Cornellians Daniel McKee and David Rando went on to win top prizes in the competition.

First Prize
Daniel McKee, Cornell University
Collection: Educational Books of Japan's Meiji Period
Prize: $2,500; trip to the awards ceremony; one-year membership in the
Grolier Club; $1,000 donation in his name to Cornell University Library

Third Place
David Rando, Cornell University
Collection: Finnegans Wake Reference Books
Prize: $500; trip to the awards ceremony; $250 donation in his name to the
Cornell Library (NB. David Rando and Daniel McKee tied for first place in
Cornell's competition).

Read more about Book Collecting Contests.

For more information about Cornell's success in the Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship, see:

Cornell Chronice Online - August 29, 2006: Cornellians win top honors in national book-collecting contest .

Or visit the syndicated Book Guys radio show to hear their October 4, 2007 program about the Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship. This 50 minute program includes an interview with Cornellian David Rando and discussions about Cornell's "book culture" and book collector, Susan Tane, who loaned the Cornell University Library her Edgar Allan Poe collection for exhibition in 2006.