What is this?

Each year, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress sponsor the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. In conjunction with this, many colleges and universities around the country sponsor their own contests, with the winner of each contest optionally entering the national contest as well (but if a student does not attend one of these colleges, they can submit a direct entry to the national contest). The official national contest rules are here.

Note: We found the following college contests that were not listed. If you know of any others, please let us know.

Reed College (Oregon) - Himes & Dunway Society
Oregon State University - Himes & Dunway Society

What can you win?

At the national level, three prizes are awarded: $2,500, $1,000, and $500.AND the top 3 winners will be invited to the awards ceremony at the Library of Congress - with travel expenses and accommodations paid by the sponsors! Individual colleges have their own prize structure, with some prizes up to $2,000 (the libraries of the national winning students also receive cash prizes).

Also, there is a separate essay-bibliography contest at the national level, where the prize is an additional $500.

What kind of collection is expected?

For the national contest: "A collection should reflect a clearly defined unifying theme or interest. It may incorporate ephemera, maps, prints, autograph material as well as books, either hard cover or paperback, as long as they are germane to the collection's focus. How well a collection reflects the collector's intent is more significant than either the number of items or the monetary value of the collection."

How do you win?

For the national contest: "Judges will award prizes based on the intrinsic significance, innovation and interest of book collections as presented in entrants' descriptive essays and bibliographies. As part of the judging process evaluations will be made of the entrants' understanding of their collections' subjects, their use and citation of previously-published bibliographical materials, and their knowledge and appreciation of the items in their collections both for content and as objects of craft. The judges will also consider how collections may help preserve material that could otherwise be lost or forgotten, and the potential of collections to expand and evolve. Age, rarity and uniqueness of items will be assessed independently of monetary value."

The criteria for the various colleges may vary from this..

When and How do you enter the contest?

The deadline for entries into the national contest is May 30, 2014. The deadlines for the individual colleges vary - it may already be too late for some, but there's always next year!

To enter the national contest, you must fill out the entry form at the ABAA site:

• Direct Entry into national contest (for students not attending an affiliated college)
• College Winner Entry into national contest (for students winning at their affiliated college)

Where can you get more information?

The best starting point is the ABAA website.

Where do I get my books?

That's easy - at used book sales, non-profit stores, antiquarian book stores, and book fairs - all of which you will find at Book Sale Finder! And don't forget to look at online book dealers.