The prize is offered by the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums. Its purpose is to encourage students of the University to build their own coherent collections of books and/or other printed, manuscript or photographic material.
The prize will be offered to an undergraduate or postgraduate student of the University of St Andrews in good standing, including those graduating in the current session. It will be in two parts: the first consisting of a payment of £250 for the purchase (within 6 months of the date of the award) of a printed, manuscript or photographic item for the University Collections, to be selected by the winner in co-operation with the curators.
The collection must be owned and collected solely by the entrant. The collection may consist of printed books, printed ephemera, manuscripts, photographic material, or a combination of any of these, with a common theme. Audiovisual material may form part of the collection, but it must support the printed/manuscript/photographic material and not form the basis of the collection.
Entrants should submit an essay of not more than 2,500 words explaining the interest of their collection and how and why it was assembled, including a section listing five items the entrant would like to add to their collection, with a brief explanation of how these would improve the collection. In addition, every entry must be accompanied by an annotated bibliography of the items in the collection. Essays not accompanied by a list of items in the collection will not be considered by the judges.
The prize will be awarded at the judges' discretion, having regard to the purpose of the prize. the award will be based on the interest, originality, thoughtfulness and creativity of the collection and the persistence of the collector. Age, size, and monetary value of the collection will not be relevant criteria. The quality of the essay and other materials submitted by the entrant, as described in paragraph 4, will be taken into account. The judge's decision on any matter is final.
By submitting entry materials, the entrant agrees that the University Libraries and Museums may reproduce any part of the entry materials in connection with the prize or future prizes in any form it considers appropriate.
Entries must be submitted via the online form no later than the deadline specified on the collecting prize webpage.
The prize will be judged by a panel drawn from specialists in the University Libraries and Museums, academic staff, and the private book collecting community.
Short-listed entrants will be invited to meet the judges and to make a brief presentation of their collection, alone or with other contestants. An awards ceremony will follow on the same evening; short-listed entrants are expected to attend.