Book Collecting Contest boasts record year

A record-breaking number of participants in the 2007 Student Book Collecting Contest made it an enormous success this year. Thirty students entered the contest – almost twice as many as the previous record.

“It was just a phenomenal year,” says Sharon Kozlo, administrative assistant at University Libraries.

Six graduate students were given awards, along with five undergraduate students. They will receive their cash awards at a reception April 19 at the University Club on the Tempe campus. The top graduate and undergraduate winner will continue on to the national level Oct. 12 in Seattle.

The winners are:

Graduate students

Best collection

• First place ($600) – Anthropology major Michael O'Hara, who entered his collection of books and maps on the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

• Second place ($300) – History major Matthew Garrett, who entered his Lewis and Clark Expedition collection.

• Third place ($200) – English major Adrienne Leavy, who entered her collection of a century of Irish social and cultural history.

• Honorable mention ($100) – Daniel Voica, an economics and math major at the Polytechnic campus, who entered a collection of books on economics and math.

Best essay

• First place ($250) – Christopher Schneider, a justice and social inquiry major, who had a collection focused on the transgenerational transmission of social science knowledge.

• Second place ($100) – Michel Zajac, an art and art history major, whose collection focused on the building of the Roman city of Pompeii, which he visited and did research for his thesis.

Undergraduate students

Best collection

• First place ($600) – Jamie-Brooke Forseth, a political science major, violin performance and English literature major, who presented a collection of books and music scores on Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz.

• Second place ($300) – Alexander Doss, political science, who had a collection on the Tamil civilization of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.

• Third place ($200) – Katherine Giovacchini, an English literature major, who presented a collection of science-fiction and books about and by women.

• Honorable mention ($100) – History major Marissa DeMartini, who presented her Cherry Ames Nurse Stories collection.

Best essay

• First place ($250) –Forseth's collection of books and music scores on Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz also took the top prize in this category.

• Second place ($100) – Brian Wilkins, a journalism and history major, who presented his collection on African-American history.