Attention NYC Library School Students: Urban Librarians Unite Book Scholarship Essay Contest (Winter Quarter, 2013) is officially open. Once again we challenge the library school community of New York City to write an essay addressing a topic common to urban librarianship. The topic this season is something many working librarians have been thinking and talking about a great deal:

What is the role of the librarian in the city?

Our panel of judges are looking for bold and creative thoughts tied to well-written professional writing. Show us your best and brightest ideas. Join the dialog of urban librarianship. And in the end, the author of the best essay will win a gift card for books and supplies worth $200.

RULES
– Submit essays to as a .doc attachment to uluessaycontest@gmail.com
– All essays must be submitted by end of day (11:59pm) February 15th, 2013
– All entrants must either live in New York City or attend a Library/Information Science
program at an accredited library school based in New York City
– All entrants must be presently enrolled in a course of study pursuant to postgraduate education in
Library/Information Science (“Library School”)
– Essays should be between 1000 – 1200 words
– Essays should be on the topic/question given for that semester only
– One essay per person, per semester
– No repeat submissions of the same essay in different semesters
– Essay winners may compete again in subsequent semesters
– All essays will be considered anonymously
– Winning essay will be published on urbanlibrariansunite.org
– Runner up essays will be published on urbanlibraiansunite.org at the discretion of the
organization and the essay author
– Contest winners shall receive a $200 cash prize for use in purchasing books and
supplies for the pursuit of postgraduate library and information science education.

FORMATTING RULES
– Submit essays as Microsoft Word documents (.doc)
– Put your name and the name of your institution at the top of the first page of your essay
Do not put your name in the header or footer of the essay
– Use APA formatting for text and citations

Please pay careful attention to all contest rules. Essays not within boundaries of the rules may be disqualified. Winner will be contacted by email and announced on this website in March 2013.

And – we’re also proud to share the winning essay for Urban Librarians Unite Book Scholarship Essay Contest (Fall Quarter, 2012), written by Haruko Yamauchi. We’ll be posting the runner ups from last year’s contest in the weeks to come.

Good Luck!