TBLC News

Above, Palm Beach County Director John Callahan presents high school sophomore Joshua Stadlan with his prize and certificate for winning The Director’s Chair video contest.

Palm Beach County high school students dominate statewide library video contest

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 www.askalibrarian.org/thedirectorschair to see the winners’ videos.

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

Librarians all over Florida are celebrating Ask a Librarian Day today! They’re donning their “ask me about askalibrarian.org” t-shirts, handing out stickers to customers, and talking about what a valuable and user-friendly service Ask a Librarian is.

Above, Richard Felver and Amy Adams from Southeastern University show off their new t-shirts and prepare to field tons of questions about this great service!

Ask a Librarian is available 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit www.askalibrarian.org for more information or to ask a librarian a question.

Although there won’t be noisemakers or confetti, librarians all over the state will celebrate Ask a Librarian Day on Feb. 20 to bring awareness to Ask a Librarian, a free online reference service that allows Floridians to chat with a librarian for help with homework or general questions.

Librarians at almost 100 libraries around Florida will don t-shirts boasting the message “Ask me about askalibrarian.org” and will talk about the valuable service with their customers. They hope to enlighten people on the benefits of Ask a Librarian so that everyone can take full advantage of this user-friendly collaborative service.

“Ask a Librarian is such a useful online tool for people,” said Diana Silveira, virtual reference manager for Ask a Librarian. “We partner with libraries to offer Floridians an amazing free service at their fingertips. We couldn’t do this without our libraries, and we hope that Ask a Librarian Day gives them a chance to brag a little bit about what they do.”

Ask a Librarian is available 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit www.askalibrarian.org for more information or to ask a librarian a question.

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.

Click here to see the winning videos in Ask a Librarian’s The Director’s Chair video contest. Congratulations to our winners!

You have just ONE MORE DAY to vote for your favorite video in Ask a Librarian’s The Director’s Chair video contest. The top five finalists are high school students from around Florida, and they worked very hard on their videos. So go check them out. AND VOTE!

Visit www.askalibrarian.org/thedirectorschair and click on “vote” to see the top five videos and to vote for the one you think deserves to win.

**Polls will close on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 11:59 p.m., so hurry!**