For Immediate Release
Debbie Glade
Smart Poodle Publishing
The Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly; Costa Rica
978-0-9800307-9-2
smartpoodle@comcast.net
www.smartpoodlepublishing.com
www.lillybadilly.com
"I Love to Read" video - www.youtube.com
954-328-7465

Smart Poodle Publishing Announces Winners of "What I Wish Everyone Knew About Libraries" Writing Contest

The Contest

Smart Poodle Publishing sponsored an essay contest for librarians entitled "What I Wish Everyone Knew About Librarians." This was a chance for entrants to dispel stereotypes of "typical" librarians.

44 entries from 23 states were received from a wide variety of libraries including public, private, corporate, law, music, theological, medical, university, college, middle school and even a prison library. These range from rural libraries with one employee to mega libraries with 90,000+ books checked out every month. From helping a patron research her child's life-threatening illness, to handling a hilarious incident in a library bathroom, these librarians shared details about their jobs outsiders would be fascinated to know.

The Judging

After 4 months of receiving entries, the Smart Poodle Publishing judges carefully picked the 3 contest Winners. The quality of the entries was so outstanding, 3 additional awards for Honorable Mention were added. "It is no surprise that librarians are excellent writers!" said publisher Debbie Glade. "But the sheer excellence of the entries was overwhelming to the judges."

5 diversely qualified judges with extensive writing, teaching or library experience met this challenge by evaluating the entries. These judges include: Virginia Becker, Jennifer Donovan, Debbie Glade, Susan Roseberry and Tyler Tichelaar. To keep the judging completely fair, judges were given entries with assigned numbers, without entrant names, titles or library info. To learn about the judges go to http://smartpoodlepublishing.com/blog.

The Winners

The winners were chosen based on 5 criteria 1) how well the contest theme question was answered; 2) writing style; 3) creativity and originality; 4) grammar 5) each of the 5 judges' overall opinion of the essay.

Grand Prize Winner
Lisbeth Boutang
Children's Librarian
Cloquet Public Library, Cloquet, MN

Lisbeth will be awarded $500, an Award Certificate and an autographed copy of Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica.

Second Place Winner
Brenda Talley
Adult Services Librarian
North Richland Hills Public Library,
North Richland Hills, TX

Brenda will be awarded $100, an Award Certificate and an autographed copy of Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica.

3rd Place Winner
Sue Kowalski
Middle School Librarian
Pine Grove Middle School Library
East Syracuse, NY

Sue will be awarded $50, an Award Certificate and an autographed copy of Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Missy Littell
Children’s Reference
Tuscarawas County Public Library
New Philadelphia, OH

Andrea Rubin
Assistant Librarian
Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass
San Francisco, CA

Christi Underdown
Assistant Cataloger
Center for Popular Music
Murfreesboro, TN

These Honorable Mention Award Winners will receive a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, an Award Certificate and an autographed copy of Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica.

All other contest entrants will receive an autographed copy of Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica.

To read the winning entries go to http://smartpoodlepublishing.com/blog.

Essays cannot be reprinted in any form without permission from the publisher.

The Essays

Many of the entrants commented on how much they enjoyed writing their stories and how much they appreciated the opportunity to tell them. By reading the entries, the judges learned so much about the rewards and challenges of being a librarian that Smart Poodle Publishing wants others to benefit from these informative essays as well. Any non-librarian who reads these essays will have a new appreciation for librarians and a new understanding of how libraries work. Those who purchases 1 or more copies of the Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly Costa Rica (ISBN - 978-0-9800307-9-2) by January 15, 2009, either through the publisher at www.lillybadilly.com, from Baker & Taylor, Follett or Emery Pratt, will receive a free document containing all the entries of the participants who agreed to share their stories. Those who buy a book(s) should send confirmation of purchase to the publisher. For details go to http://smartpoodlepublishing.com/blog.

Smart Poodle Publishing thanks each librarian who took the time to write an essay, each of our judges who spent a great deal of time reading them and choosing the winners and all the organizations who promoted this contest on their websites.

Congratulations to the winners and to all the entrants for their outstanding essays!