Winners of the Friends of the UCSC Library's 41st annual Book Collection Essay Contest for UCSC students were recently recognized at an awards ceremony held at McHenry Library.
Students were asked to imagine a collection of books that they would like to own concerning their favorite subject. They were then instructed to write an essay of up to 1,000 words describing the collection and why it is important to them, complete with an annotated bibliography.
Elizabeth K. Gray (Porter College) took first place for her subject "Finding My Grandfather in the 'Chicago School' of Sociology"; Alexander Jabbari (College Ten), was awarded second place for "Learning My Family's History Through a Book Collection"; Dylan Chapple (Porter College) garnered third place for "The People's Music: A Folk Music Record Collection." All received cash prizes of $500, $300, and $200, respectively.
The contest judges included UCSC reference librarian Ken Lyons; Friends of the UCSC Library board member Constance Wright; librarian Paul Machlis; library assistant Amy Chirman; and Writing Program lecturer Mark Baker. Bookshop Santa Cruz, Borders, Capitola Book Café, Literary Guillotine, Logos, and Westside Stories donated certificates for the awards.
Winners of the 13th annual High School Book Collection Essay Contest also took home cash prizes for themselves and bookstore certificates for their schools at the event.
