A collection of one’s own: Katie Sickman's personalized Winesett win

MFA graphic design student, Katie Sickman, won second place in the Nov. 18 Radford University McConnell Library Winesett Book Collecting Contest.

Sickman originally found out about the contest after being asked to design the poster advertising it in 2013. This year’s poster is also one of Sickman’s designs. This is her second Winesett award. In 2013, she won an honorable mention.

The Winesett Book Collecting Contest allows RU student’s to display and discuss their personal book collections. To enter, each participant must submit at least 20 books from their own personal collection, write an essay regarding the purpose of their collection, include a list of at least 10 books they would like to add to it, and do a brief summary of why they wish to add each book.

Sickman started her collection about a year and a half ago after she took a publication design course. During this class, she discovered the availability of texts from Project Gutenburg, an online database of copyright-expired texts in various digital formats. Its stock is incredibly vast, from novels to nonfiction, periodicals to reference texts, schoolbooks to cookbooks, and these are available to anyone.

Sickman’s book collection is her own personalized library. She self-produces and publishes all her own books. She designs entire books including the text layouts, typography, table of contents, page numbers and covers. Some of the authors in her collection include Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle.

“Katie Sickman’s submission to the 2014 Winesett Book Collecting Contest was, in every sense, innovative and singular among this year’s entries,” said Christopher Miller, archivist for the McConnell Library. “To my mind, Katie has combined the very best motivations of the curatorial act, which is ubiquitous in the digital age, with the spirit and love of books that we seek to preserve through such a contest.”

He said as an archivist who seeks to re-engage the public’s interaction with historical works, Sickman’s vision and accomplishment have deeply inspired him.

“Katie's work merges the materiality of the book with innovative and visionary design. Her work is truly exceptional in both concept and execution,” said Carlee Bradbury, associate professor of art history. It was Bradbury’s fall 2013 History of Books class that fostered early discussions about Sickman’s project.

At the time Sickman started her book-collecting project, she began amassing digital files, bookmarking them, or jotting down titles and authors with the intention of collecting the books just for herself. She soon realized, however, the potential in expanding her collection to benefit others.

In addition to designing the books, her work includes rebranding the stories.

“I think too often younger generations see ‘old’ anything and are immediately dismissive of any potential value. I hope by designing new, modern covers and interior layouts I can help new generations of readers discover past literary treasures,” Sickman said.

Sickman started designing individualized copies for friends and family, such as an early 20th century, southern-style cookbook created specifically for a friend who deeply identifies with her southern culinary roots.

“I think she enjoyed receiving it as much as I did designing it,” Sickman said.

At this time, Sickman is not far enough along to make her books available online for purchase, but she said it will happen soon.

She also has bigger ideas to create classroom editions with increased margin space for notes and annotations. Also planned are artist books, which will really emphasize the personalities of the texts in a more creative, yet still functional, way.

“Most collections focus on preserving singular editions from being lost, but my project is about making sure that the stories inside them are never forgotten,” Sickman said.

For more information about the Winesett Awards, visit http://library.radford.edu/index.php/generated/research/winesett-awards-for-library-research-details.