Children's, School Librarians Win the 'What I Wish Everyone Knew About Librarians" Contest
RSSBy SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 03/12/2009
What do you wish everyone knew about librarians? Lisbeth Boutang, a children’s librarian at Cloquet Public Library in Minnesota, says she wishes that people knew about their courage to imagine.
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Lisbeth Boutang won grand prize. |
Heartfelt phrases like that are what led Boutang to beat 44 public, academic, school—and even a prison librarian—from 23 states, landing her 1,150-word essay as the grand prize in the Smart Poodle Publishing’s “What I Wish Everyone Knew About Librarians Writing Contest.” The prize came with $500.
The Florida-based children’s educational publisher says it knows librarians can make a world of difference in the lives of readers everywhere, from every age and at every reading level. That’s why it launched the contest. “We feel that librarians are sometimes under appreciated or misunderstood,” so the contest finally gave them a chance to speak out and dispel stereotypes of “typical” librarians.
Launched last summer, the contest was open to public, private, and school and university libraries who are legal residents of the Unites States.
The second prize, which comes with $100, went to Brenda Talley, an adult services supervisor at North Richland Hills Public Library in Texas, and the third prize, which comes with $50, went to Sue Kowalski, school librarian at Pine Grove Middle School in East Syracuse, NY.
Talley said she wished people realized how many hats librarians wear—from the detail-oriented cataloging hat and the adult public services hat to the children’s story teller hat and teen services hat. There’s also the ringmaster hats that manages a plethora of programs for people of all ages and the check-out desk hat, where librarians keep a stack of hats—from “traffic cop to direct people to what they need, bank teller when collecting fines, paper hats when people treat us like fast food employees, and funereal hats as patrons, unable to contain
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Sue Kowalski took third prize. |
But at the end of the day, Talley wrote, “when hats are set aside and weary fingers run through tangled hair or smoothed over shiny scalps, public librarians are dedicated, disgruntled, humble, egomaniacal, compassionate, heartless, antagonistic, shrinking violets with saber-toothed tempers, commanders of common sense and frivolity. We serve the public, we are the public. We are just like you.”
Kowalski’s essay concludes that every librarian is a product of many past lives—from a nurturing grandmother and performer to an ambulance driver on rescue mode to an eight-year-old eager to learn .
“In the heart and soul of each and everyone of is the unique being we are,” she wrote. “Each bring to the table varied passions, experience, skills, and talents. We collectively become a stronger team of professionals who share a vision with individual perspectives. Individually we nurture, entertain, help, create, learn, and teach. Collectively, we impact the world.”
After four months of entries, the Smart Poodle Publishing judges picked the three winners—and because they were so many outstanding entries three Honorable Mentions were added. “It is no surprise that librarians are excellent writers!” says publisher Debbie Glade. “But the sheer excellence of the entries was overwhelming to the judges.”
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Missy Littell received an honorable mention. |
