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Winners of the 25th Annual Neureuther Competition

The results are in for the 25th annual Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition sponsored by Washington University Libraries.

WUSTL undergrads and graduate students entered their essays into one of two categories, competing for prizes of $1,000 for first place and $500 for second place in each category. Judging was conducted by a panel of volunteers drawn from the faculty of Washington University and the St. Louis community.

This year, Anne Jensen-Urstad (PhD candidate in Biology) won first place in the graduate category for her essay "Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be: the collected works of Haruki Murakami." Second place went to Ervin Malakaj (PhD candidate in German) for "The Book-Filled Crate."

In the undergraduate student category, senior German and European studies major Karina Louise Stridh won first place for "Life as a Joke: In Defense of the Comedic Narrative." Senior biochemistry major Alexandra Barger won second place for "Notes from the Post-Apocalypse."

Click here to read the winning essays online.

The Neureuther Book Collection Essay Competition is made possible by an endowment from Carl Neureuther, a 1940 graduate of Washington University who sought to encourage WU students to read for pleasure throughout their lives.

"Open Scholarship" Repository Launched

On Monday, March 26, 2012, Washington University Libraries announced the launch of Open Scholarship, an institutional repository providing access to the scholarly output of faculty, staff, and students from Washington University in St. Louis.

The purpose of Open Scholarship is to enhance access to the academic work of WUSTL scholars, gathering items in a single digital place. Developed following the Faculty Senate’s passage of an Open Access Resolution in May of 2011, Open Scholarship is a further step in the university’s commitment to make scholarship and creative works freely and easily available to the world community.

"Our Open Scholarship site enables us to highlight intellectual achievements of our students and faculty," says Shirley K. Baker, vice chancellor for scholarly resources and dean of University Libraries. "While initially we are featuring recently completed theses and dissertations, we will also add to the site publications that faculty and students would like to have made freely available on the Internet."

Even prior to the official launch of the service, the public site tallied more than 1,200 downloads of papers—roughly two downloads per item. Currently the site contains all of the electronic theses and dissertations completed at Washington University in St. Louis since 2009, as well as undergraduate honors theses and the winning essays from the Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition back to 2003. More collections are soon to follow.

Open Scholarship is available at http://openscholarship.wustl.edu. Those interested in submitting scholarly works to the repository will find helpful information in the Author Corner section of the site, which includes frequently asked questions. For more information, contact Tim Lepczyk, digital repository-metadata librarian, at tlepczyk@wustl.edu, or Digital Library Services at 314-935-6349.

Jefferson Historian to Speak March 28

Washington University Libraries invite you to a talk by Ann Lucas Birle, research historian at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, about her book Thomas Jefferson’s Granddaughter in Queen Victoria’s England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839 and about the discovery of books once owned by Thomas Jefferson, in Washington University Libraries’ collections.

Birle's lecture is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in Wilson Hall, Room 214, on Washington University’s Danforth Campus. A reception, book signing, and exhibition will follow in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Room and Grand Staircase Lobby. Birle’s book will be available for purchase at the reception. The exhibition, State of the Union: Reconstructing a Thomas Jefferson Family Library, can be viewed during regular library hours through mid-June.

This event is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend, please email jlowery@wustl.edu or call 314-935-5418. Leave your name and the number of people in your party. For a map of campus, visit http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/maps/danforthmap.pdf. Wilson Hall (building #125 ) is on the south side of campus, and Olin Library (building #81) sits at roughly the geographic center of campus.

 

New University Librarian Appointed

Jeffrey G. Trzeciak, university librarian at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has been named university librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, 2012. Trzeciak replaces Shirley K. Baker, vice chancellor for scholarly resources and dean of University Libraries, who will retire after 23 years of service to WUSTL, on June 30, 2012.

For a full story in the Washington University Record, go to http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/23471.aspx.