We love books. You love books, and we know that you have personal book collections that are focused on a theme or topic. Share your interest, and your collection, by entering the 2026 Greenfield Library book-collecting contest.

Enter by completing the Book Collecting Contest Submission Form between January 5 and January 16, 2026.

Contest Guidelines

A contest entry consists of a brief bibliographic essay that explains the personal significance of your collection, alongside an annotated bibliography of at least ten items from the collection. This should be uploaded on the entry form as a single PDF document with two separate sections. 

The 2026 contest will open for entries on January 5, 2026.

Entries will be due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday January 16, 2026. 

Current SJCA students, faculty, and staff are eligible to enter, as well as faculty & staff spouses / partners.

Each entrant is limited to a single submission which should include 10 or more books.

All items in the collection must be owned and collected by the entrant.

Collections may contain hardbacks and paperbacks.

Collections must be based on a unifying principle that has personal significance to you. This personal significance should be explained in the brief bibliographic essay. The theme of your collection can be broad or narrow. Some examples include:

• books on a particular topic,
• signed books,
• books with elaborate bindings,
• books in a specific genre,
• books with a particular purpose - such as travel books or cook books,
• books for a specific audience such as children’s books,
• illustrated books connected by a theme, audience, or artist
• books published by a specific press
• books written by a particular author
• books received from a particular person.

This should not be considered an exhaustive or limiting list. You should enter any collection unified by a theme that can be explained in the brief bibliographic essay.

Collections do not need to consist of rare materials and will not be judged on dollar value or size. Submissions will be judged blind by a committee and will be judged on the creativity and thoughtfulness in developing the collection, cohesion of the collection, and the significance of the collection to the owner, as communicated through the essay & bibliography.

Awardees will be required to loan at least 10 books of their choice to the Greenfield Library for the Book Collecting Contest exhibit from February to April 2026, and to permit their photograph to be displayed alongside the books.

View a sample entry:

• 2022 first-place entry: Books about Words by Magnolia Vandiver

Prizes

There are monetary prizes for the entries that place first and second in the contest, which will be awarded at a reception to open the exhibit. In addition, honorees are encouraged to enter the National Collegiate Book-Collecting Contest.

2025 Contest

The awardees in the 2025 Book Collecting Contest were:

Graham Testen, for Paths through Time.

Davin Faris, for How to Fall in Love with the World.

Congratulations to both awardees. 

Questions

Please email greenfield.library(at)sjc.edu for more details or with questions. We look forward to reviewing your entries.