The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming is conducting one-of-its-kind competition as part of the annual celebration of American Archives Month. The university is holding 'Name the Tribble' contest! 

In a bid to bring out the cool-quotient of archives the UW is organizing, an authentic tribble contest inspired by one of many science fiction collections of the Forrest J. Ackerman papers.

Ackerman was a writer and collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia. He also coined the term "sci-fi".  Ackerman had no connection with Wyoming. However, years ago he donated many boxes of manuscripts, photographs, movie stills, correspondence, books, movie posters and artifacts including a tribble from the Star Trek set to AHC.

Tribbles, an imaginative asexual small animal first appeared in 1967 Star Trek series in episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".

Tribbles are depicted as rather small creatures, with no visibly external features. They are completely covered with fur and move along with the ground, while generating a purring sound.

The Klingon Empire considered tribbles as dubious enemies as in Star Trek they are transported to Klingon ship after they over run Starship Enterprise. Tribbles hiss when they encounter Star Trek's best-known bad guys.

"The idea is to behind the 'Name the Tribble' contest was to promote American Archives Month and show people that archives aren't just repositories of musty old documents - they can be home to cool stuff, too," reported Associated Press. 

 A good tribble name should sum up 'tribble-esque qualities', said Rachael Dreyer, organizer of the naming contest.

To promote the awareness amongst the people over the importance of archives, various communities observe American Archives Month ever year for one whole month.  During the month of October, archival institutions across the country conduct many special events to reach out communities and create awareness about the archives.

If you wish to take part in naming contest, send your entries to ahc(at)uwyo.edu, with "Tribble Contest" and your name in the subject line or posted at the AHM's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/UWAHC

The deadline for the contest is Oct 22.