Two Cornell students garnered top honors in the first Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship, a national competition sponsored by Fine Books and Collections magazine.

Daniel McKee and David Rando, who tied for first place in the graduate student division of the Cornell Library and Library Advisory Council Book Collection Contest, placed first and third, respectively, in the national contest. They competed against 44 other book contest prizewinners from 30 universities.

McKee will earn his doctorate in Japanese literature and is the curator for the Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute, a California museum devoted to the arts of Japan. His collection, "Educational Books from Japan's Meiji Period (1868-1912)," focuses on richly illustrated textbooks from the late-19th century that were used to educate Japanese youth. The Meiji Period revolutionized Japan's public policy, as the political and intellectual elite sought to catch up to the West by creating the nation's first-ever public education system.

Rando, who earned his doctorate in English and is working as an assistant professor of English at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, won for his collection, "The Books at the Wake," which includes more than 50 vintage reference books for James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake." Its highlights include a handmade edition of "Finnegans Wake" by Rando and essential reference works from the 1960s and 1970s.

As the first-place winner, McKee won a cash prize of $2,500 and a one-year membership to the Grolier Club, America's largest and oldest society for bibliophiles. Rando received $500. In addition, a $1,000 donation will be made to the Cornell Library in McKee's name, and Rando will have a $250 donation made in his. Both were also awarded trips to New York City for the September awards ceremony.

Introduced in 2003, Cornell's Book Collection Contest continues the tradition of the Arthur H. Dean and Mary Marden Dean Book Collection Contest, which was held in Uris Library for undergraduate students from 1966 to 1987. This was the first year entries were accepted from graduate students. The competition provides Cornell students with the opportunity to display their aptitude in assembling and organizing book collections and to articulate their interest in reading and collecting books.