Friedrich Puksoo Prize Was Awarded to Mare Rand

26.01.2017

Friedrich Puksoo Prize 2017 was given to the meritorious librarian of the UT Library Mare Rand  for her monograph Tracing a Cultural Historical Treasure: Plant Drawings by Konrad Gessner in the University of Tartu Library (Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2015).

Six publications from the years 2015-2016 were submitted for this year’s Friedrich Puksoo Prize. The richly illustrated winning book, compiled by Mare Rand (design by Eve Valper), provides a captivating overview of the formation and fate of the collection of plant drawings by the 16th century Swiss scholar Konrad Gessner (1516-1565) in the UT Library.

Beside the winner, three other works were acknowledged. Among them was Tartu Antique Book Shops in the Circulation of Bibliophile Publications by Immanuel Volkonski where the author describes the spread of bibliophile publications and the activities of antique book shops in Tartu, concentrating on the years 1960–1980. The book on this rarely researched topic in our book culture was the author’s graduation thesis at the University of Tartu.   

Another distinguished work was Academic Library E-service Quality and Working User: Conceptual Model (Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2016) (Dessertationes mediis et communicationibus Universitatis Tartuensis; 28) by Olga Einasto. The author presents a conceptual model of e-services offered by the modern research library and analyses the influence of user participation on the process and result of e-service. The working user who applies their cognitive and emotional potential for getting successful e-service is a new phenomenon at academic libraries. University libraries have successfully accomplished the informational and digital turns, but the communicational turn is still about to follow.

The Collection of Photographs and Photogravures by William Henry Fox Talbot in the University of Tartu Library (Tallinn: Aasta Raamat OÜ, 2016) by Tullio Ilomets was the third acknowledged work. This book introduces a unique part of the UT Library photo collection, provides an insight into of the history of photography and introduces the research of the heritage of W. H. F. Talbot in Estonia and in abroad.  

The biennial Friedrich Puksoo Prize, named after F. Puksoo (1890-1969), a long-time director of the UT Library (1919–1944), and issued by the Estonian Librarians’ Association and the UT Library, was founded in 1990 in order to recognise the author(s) of the best research in the fields of book history, librarianship or bibliography,

Mare Rand will receive the Prize at the annual meeting of the Estonian Librarians’ Association in Tallinn on 28 February 2017.

 

Additional information:
Malle Ermel
Secretary of the Award Committee
Head of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, UT Library
Tel 55 522 452
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