Library-sponsored student awards range from fun contests to formal recognition of accomplishments.

Cornell University Library

Student employee and textiles and apparel major Quham Olayinka Adeniyi '07, pictured here holding his sketch, designed the winning entry for the Fine Arts Library T-shirt contest.

T-shirt contest

The top contender for "fun" awards is the Fine Arts Library's (FAL) T-shirt Contest. The goal of the competition was to develop a unique T-shirt that identified FAL student employees. The winner was Quham Olayinka Adeniyi '07, a textiles and apparel major, who also won a $50 award toward a restaurant meal of his choice. Library judges felt his design "captured both the energy of our library and the richness of our resources."

Fuerst Outstanding Library Employee Awards

William F. Fuerst Jr. '39 was a devoted supporter of Cornell University Library, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Big Red Athletics and Cornell Plantations. He was named "foremost benefactor of Cornell" in 1989 and received the Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award in recognition of his extraordinary service and leadership in 2000.

In 1995 he created the Fuerst Outstanding Library Student Employee Awards to recognize five student employees each year for their exceptional performance, leadership and library service to the campus. The library system employs approximately 500 students a year, so being nominated is in itself an honor. Each winner receives $500, the largest monetary award for student employees on campus.

Cornell University Library

The Fuerst Outstanding Library Student Employee Award recipients for 2006 gather for a photo with University Librarian Sarah Thomas. From left, Elaine Guidero, Noel Flores, Thomas, Aaron Dulles-Coelho, and Martha Clark (students are all Class of 2006). Lindsay Wilczynski, who also received a Fuerst award, is not pictured.

The following students, all from the Class of 2006, are this year's winners:

• Martha Clark, Olin/Kroch/Uris libraries;
• Aaron Macy Dulles-Coelho, Engineering Library;
• Noel Flores, Olin Library;
• Elaine Guidero, Mann Library;
• Lindsay Wilczynski, Hotel Library.

Book collection contest

Building on a tradition established by the Arthur H. Dean and Mary Marden Dean Book Collection Contest, held in Uris Library from 1966 to 1987, the Cornell Library Advisory Council sponsored the first annual Book Collection Contest. Now in a new format, the contest provides Cornell undergraduates the opportunity to show their aptitude for assembling and organizing book collections. This year a graduate student category was added to the competition. Prizewinners received monetary awards, first-prize winners being awarded $1,000. All three levels of prizewinners received bookplates that acknowledged their winning entries.

The winners are:

Undergraduate Category

• First Prize: Corey Ryan Earle '07 for "The Builders of Cornell University."
• Second Prize: Erika Jo Brown '06 for "Living Poetries."
• Third Prize: David Krause '08 for "The Shakers: A Simple Quest for Perfection."

Graduate Category

• First Prize (tie): David Rando for "The Books at the Wake" and Daniel and Kumiko McKee for "Raising the Civilized Mind: Educational Books of the Meiji Period (1868-1912)."
• Second Prize: Joseph W. Yarbrough for "Leo and His Latin Legacy."
• Third Prize: Lawrence and Jane Bruce-Robertson for "Author as Illustrator: Artist as Writer."

Lynn Brown is interim director for library communications.