Aaron Ludwig, a sophomore animation student at Brigham Young University, has won the first-ever Sparky Awards Peoples’ Choice prize for his short film, “Clueless Discovery.” The video was voted the best by students and others everywhere in an open online vote held earlier this Spring.
Organized by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, and adopted by campuses throughout the United States, the Sparky Awards contest entrants creatively illustrate in a short video the value of openly sharing ideas.
“Clueless Discovery” demonstrates how failing to share information and “reinventing the wheel” not only hampers progress, but can be harmful. The clip is online at http://vimeo.com/6223728. As the People’s Choice Award winner, Ludwig receives a $500 cash prize.
“I believe strongly in the library's Open Access and sharing information,” said Ludwig. “The more we share with those around us, the more we will learn and the better our society will become. I found it fitting that, when I ran into problems or had questions as I created my video — in Adobe Flash, which I hadn’t used before — friends were there to help, sharing what they knew to help me overcome the obstacles I faced. They shared and I learned.”
Ludwig was one entrant in a local version of the contest hosted by BYU.
“The Harold B. Lee library is thrilled to congratulate Aaron Ludwig on winning this award,” said Julene Butler, BYU's University Librarian. “We’re so pleased to see the hard work of BYU students recognized this way. And it’s another pay off from our modest investment in the Sparky Awards. The greatest benefits have been student awareness of copyright and Creative Commons, their increased familiarity with library services, and seeing students stop to think about sharing ideas and how it changes and enriches our world.”
The 2009 Sparky Awards were also syndicated by libraries at the University of Florida, University of Houston, University of Pennsylvania, Penn State (Digital Commons), Southern Illinois University Carbondale, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Victoria, and the University of Western Ontario.
The 2009 Sparky Awards were organized by SPARC and co-sponsored by:the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, Campus MovieFest, the Center for Social Media, the New Media Consortium (NMC), the Open Video Alliance, Penn Libraries, Students for Free Culture, the Student PIRGs and SPARC.
For more information, visit the Sparky Awards Web site at http://www.sparkyawards.org .
Writer: Jennifer McLennan
