Penn rewards student book collectors

In an age of declining interest in print publications, Penn is rewarding those with a lingering penchant for hard-copy books.

Tuesday afternoon, the winners of the Kislak Foundation Student Book Collecting Competition were recognized in Claudia Cohen Hall by the Orrery Society — an organization that supports the enhancement and preservation of scholarly collections at the Penn Libraries.

The winners were evaluated on the subject, scope and cohesiveness of their collections, and the top three winners received cash prizes of $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000, respectively. The first-place winner’s entry was forwarded to the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.

The winning collection of Wharton masters of business administration alumnus Mehdi El Hajoui, is a 190-item anthology on Guy Debord and the Situationist International movement. It consists of not only books, but also pamphlets, DVDs and articles from literary magazines.

Given the subject of his collection, materials were often hard to find and the collecting process resembled a “treasure hunt,” according to Medhi.

“The authors of the Situationist movement did not believe in traditional intellectual property. Any of their work can be published without reference,” said Mehdi, who obtained a good share of his collection from “unexpected” sources ranging from little-known bookstores to the original authors themselves.

Competition organizer David McKnight works as director of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and for him, the purpose of the competition is to “acknowledge, encourage and promote book collecting among Penn students.”

Book collecting, in McKnight’s view, is something that happens organically as part of a student’s training and education. He admitted, though, that the culture has changed dramatically since his time at school.

“We are at a cusp right now,” McKnight said. “Everything is going digital.”

Nevertheless, there remains “an interest and passion for the physical object of the book,” which McKnight attributes to the perseverance of collectors. Books are not just “vessels for transporting knowledge,” they are “objects of beauty.”

Second-place winner Jacob Goldberg is an aberration to this rule. Goldberg is a third-year graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences studying chemistry, and for him, his 1,500-book collection of chemistry works serves as reference for his studies.

“It is a useful collection,” said Goldberg. “I can look things up in these books — they’re not just here to decorate my apartment.”

However, he admitted that he had always “had an affinity for chemistry” and the collection is a result of his professional life permeating his personal life.

The second annual Kislak Book Collecting Competition is already underway. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 10, 2011 and any full-time student at Penn under the age of 30 is eligible to participate.

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