The annual Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting competition is open to all currently enrolled undergraduates at Harvard. The prize recognizes the efforts of students who collect books, as well as encourages others to start collecting. Winners will be awarded cash prizes and are invited to exhibit their collections in the library.
Eligible collections may be of any kind — author, subject, illustrators, etc. — and three prizes are given: first prize is $3,000, the second $1,500, and the third $750.
The Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting was established in 1977 to recognize and encourage book collecting by undergraduates at Harvard. It is sponsored by the members of the Board of Overseers’ Committee to Visit the Harvard Library.
Winners will be invited to lend representative books from their collections to an exhibition at the library. The first prize winner will be eligible to compete in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.
The competition is open to undergraduates enrolled in Harvard College.