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Monday, February 24, 2014

Time to Enter the Best of Show Competition

Some of the Best of Show winners on display at the 2013 PR Xchange
It's time to prepare your entries for ALA's annual Best of Show Competition. Now you can enter online to be recognized for the great promotional materials that your library produced during the 2013 calendar year.

This contest is part of the American Library Association's Annual Conference. It's sponsored by LLAMA (the Library Leadership Administration and Management Association) and its PRMS (Public Relations and Marketing Section) group, and is overseen by the PR XChange (formerly known as Swap and Shop) Committee. The deadline is April 1.

There are many categories of materials / prizes: 
  • Advocacy (print/electronic)
    A READ poster from 2013.
  • Annual Reports / Strategic Plans (print/electronic)
  • Bibliographies / Booklists / Materials Promoting Collections (print/electronic)
  • Calendars of Events / Newsletters (print/electronic)
  • Fundraising Materials (print/electronic)
  • Reading Programs: Children and Family (print/electronic)
  • Reading Programs: Teen and Young Adult (print/electronic)
  • Reading Programs: Adult (print/electronic)
  • Services and Resources Available / Patron Orientation Materials / Policy Materials (print/electronic)
  • Special Programs, Exhibits and Events (print/electronic)
Details from the Best of Show Co-Chairs:
Entries will be evaluated based on content, originality, and design by a team of experts in public relations, graphic design, communications, and marketing who select the winner(s) in each category.  
Winning entries will be on display during the PR Xchange program during the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Awards will be presented to the winners during a Best of Show ceremony on that day. Award winners need not be present to win, but are encouraged to attend.
Online entry forms must be completed, and print work postmarked no later than April 1, 2014.
For more information about the competition, please visit the Best of Show at PR Xchange page on the LLAMA website or contact Best of Show co-chairs Karen Okamoto and Mark Aaron Polger at prxchange.bestofshow@gmail.com.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are these awards only open to US & Canadian libraries, or can libraries from all over the world enter?

~Kathy Dempsey said...

Anon, I checked with the Best of Show committee leaders. They said it's only open to US & Canada.

Otherwise, the judges might need to assess items that come in other languages and that were created to serve other cultures, which they wouldn't fully understand.

Thanks for your interest! If you want to enter an international marketing contest, check out IFLA's: http://www.ifla.org/node/6922

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much for following up Kathy. I'll check out IFLA's comp. :)