An award has been created to recognize behind-the-scenes work of K-State's support staff — work that otherwise might have gone unnoticed.

Nominations for the K-State Classified Award of Excellence are open until Jan. 22 for students, faculty and staff to nominate an exemplary support staff employee.

The purpose of the award is to recognize performance and contributions of classified staff members who consistently excel in their positions and demonstrate integrity and a strong commitment to the mission and values of K-State.

Classified employees are university workers who are not faculty members or students.

"A lot of the work they do is behind the scenes," said Barb Nagel, academic records manager and member of the award selection committee. "They support the university just like faculty and students do. They make huge contributions to the campus."

Three winners will be selected by a university-wide committee in the following support staff areas: office and clerical, technical and professional and service maintenance.

A university-wide selection committee of 10 members will choose the winners based on outstanding achievement and performance, inspirations of excellence in others and initiative and creativity.

Jennifer Gehrt, director of human resource services, who is in charge of the selection committee, said in the past there was a classified employee of the year selected from each campus department.

"But having three major winners makes it more elite and special," she said.

The winners will receive $500 and a letter of acknowledgment from the university president. Their names will be added to a plaque in Anderson Hall, and they will be acknowledged in the K-Statements newsletter.

"So many of the departments have cut their budgets, so there are not too many opportunities to use salaries to recognize what they do," Gehrt said. "This will just be another way to recognize the good work that they do."

To nominate a classified employee go to k-state.edu/hr/forms/excellence.pdf.

season by its only two seniors, forward Ashley Sweat and guard Kari Kincaid, who are averaging 17 and 12 points per game, respectively. Sweat also leads the team in rebounding with 7.2 boards per outing.

Arkansas has a trio of players averaging double figures in scoring this season. Senior guard Charity Ford has led the Razorbacks' charge this season with 13 points per game while a pair of sophomores, guard Lyndsay Harris and forward Ashley Daniels, are scoring 12.4 and 10.6 points per contest, respectively. Daniels also averages a team-high seven rebounds per game.

The Wildcats will return home to host the 2009 edition of the Wildcat Classic this weekend. Tonight's matchup marks the final road action for K-State until they travel to Las Vegas for a Dec. 19 game against Hawaii in the first round of the Duel in the Desert.

By Troy Weatherford Oklahoma University

As CD sales continue to decline, a resurgence of vinyl record sales has proven to be a small ray of hope to the music industry.

According to the 2008 Nielsen Soundscan, 1.88 million vinyl records were sold in 2008, compared to 990,000 in 2007, an increase of 89 percent. During that same time, combined sales of CDs, LPs and digital files fell by 14 percent. Vinyl long play and extended play records were the only non-digital music sales that went up in 2008, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

In early November of this year, vinyl record sales exceeded 2 million for the year. That number is up 37 percent from the same time last year, according to Billboard.biz.

Guestroom Records, a music store with locations in Norman, Okla., and Oklahoma City, makes about one-half of its sales in vinyl, co-owner Travis Searle said.

One factor driving the resurgence of vinyl is a new tendency of record labels to include a CD or digital download of the album with the vinyl. About nine out of 10 new albums come with this access to a digital copy, Searle said.

The average Guestroom Records buyer is in his or her early 20s to mid-30s, Searle said, but record collectors come in all ages. Searle has seen people as young as eight and as old as 80 buy albums on vinyl.

Sound quality is a major factor for many audiophile record collectors.

"It sounds so much crisper to me than a CD," said Will Mitas, senior at Oklahoma University. "[It's] more like I'm at a concert."

Mitas has been collecting records since his girlfriend bought him a turntable during his sophomore year of high school. Since then, his collection has grown to around 100 record albums.

"There's a certain mood transferred over vinyl ... The crackle of the needle on the record is a nostalgic aspect of it," Mitas said.

Searle said listening to a vinyl album is a more engaging experience than listening to a CD or an album on a computer. The album must be removed from its sleeve and flipped halfway through. The listener also has to switch discs on double albums.

"It's an active listening experience as opposed to a passive one," he said.

Searle said record collecting can either be a cheap or very expensive hobby.

"You can get a great big stack of vinyls for $500, or you can get a miniscule stack," Searle said. "It all depends on what you want."

There can be a major difference in the cost of albums, even within the same genre and time period. Classic rock albums from second and third-tier artists can be found used for $1 to $5. Bigger artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd usually cost more, Searle said.

Guestroom Records offers used vinyls for $3 and less. These albums are either store duplicates, have not sold or have condition issues, Searle said.

While some new vinyl albums are priced comparably to their CD counterparts, most albums are more expensive on vinyl. Some albums are only $1 or $2 more, but some are double the cost of the same CD, something Searle said makes them harder to sell.