Palm Beach County high school students

Ask a Librarian awards YouTube contest winners

On Feb. 23, Palm Beach County Library Director John Callahan and Ask a Librarian officials awarded prizes to the winners of The Director’s Chair, a contest in which Florida high school students created commercials to promote Ask a Librarian. Although the contest was statewide, all three winners came from the School District of Palm Beach County.

First-place winner Joshua Stadlan is a sophomore from Weinbaum Yeshiva High School in Boca Raton. Casandra Brescacin, a senior from Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee, won second place in the contest, and Elyse Lautenschlager, a senior from Park Vista High School in Lake Worth, won third prize.

“Ask a Librarian is an amazing service, and it was a great tool to use for my huge English research paper,” said Stadlan, whose computer-animated video of President Obama using Ask a Librarian earned the most votes. “I’ve told quite a few friends about the service.”

A panel of judges narrowed all the entries down to five finalists, and the public determined the three winners by voting online.

Ask a Librarian is a free online service that allows patrons to chat with a librarian for help with homework or general questions.

Visit http://www.tblc.org/aal/directorschair/winners2009.shtml to see the winners’ videos.

Visit www.askalibrarian.org for more information about the Ask a Librarian service.

Ask a Librarian was founded by the College Center for Library Automation (CCLA) and the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC), is managed by TBLC, and is funded as part of the Florida Electronic Library (www.flelibrary.org) by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.

The Director’s Chair – Take Two!

We are getting ready to launch our second year of The Director’s Chair, a contest in which Florida high school students create 30-second videos to promote Ask a Librarian. Visit www.askalibrarian.org/thedirectorschair for more information.

To order flyers for your library, go to “Promotional Materials” at http://info.askalibrarian.org and click on “Order Promotional Materials”