Great Librarian Write-Out

EveryLibrary is excited to announce to the rebirth of the Great Library Write-Out. This competition encourages librarians to get out of the echo-chamber and put their writing skills to good use in non-library publications for a chance to win a cash prize.

If you’re familiar with previous year’s write-outs (2013, 2012, 2011), you’ll notice that we’ll have a couple of changes in this round. It will still be seed-funded with a $250 contribution by PC Sweeney but for the first time ever we will allow submissions to online sources and anyone who adds $100 to the award will get to vote on the articles that were submitted. The judging will be based on the popularity of the print/web publication, the quality of the article and writing, and the depth of the information, and how well it addresses the question: “Why do we still need libraries?” It will be judged by the board members of EveryLibrary and anyone who contributes $100 to the prize.

After the lengthy discussion of the recent article in Forbes about replacing libraries with Kindles, we decided it was time to relaunch the contest for best writing about libraries in a non-library publication. We understand that there are thousands of amazing writers in our profession who write their own blogs and write for our professional magazines and journals, but rarely (or never) do we see an article written for the public about how libraries help society in some great way. We don’t think there has ever been a time when such articles should be appearing in the midst of the news of library closures, resource cutting, and layoffs. It’s time that we got the word out about libraries to as many people as possible!

There are many topics that you can write about and many places that you can submit your articles. For example, you can write about an amazing program that your library did in your community and submit to BoingBoing. Or, you can write about using the library as a source for information on market research for startups and submit it to Entrepreneur Magazine. You can even write in to your local newspaper about why the library is important to you and have a chance to win like our first year’s winner. It’s just important that we get as many of our stories out to our communities as we can.

While we are opening this competition up to online submissions, we still have many of the other same rules in place;

-You must be in the library profession in some fashion by working in a library related field or be a student in a library related field. However, if you feel you qualify for any other reason, just let us know and we’ll consider you in the running.

-If you submit to an online source, the traffic data must be available online. You can use this tool to check if your site qualifies.

-It must be a pro-library article speaking positively about the benefits of libraries in some aspect of society and addressing the question:  Why do we still need libraries?

-The article must be printed between August 1st 2014, and the first day of the ALA Annual Conference on June 25th, 2015

-It must be published in a non-library related magazine or journal with a national (United States) or international circulation or a widely read non-library website. More points will be given to an article in a magazine/website with the largest circulation or number of hits, and you will receive bonus points for a feature article.

-You must submit, your name, the title, and date of publication (or link) for verification by emailing PC Sweeney or commenting below.