Guess who’s having another awesome giveaway? That’s right, your favorite librarians. We have two tickets to give away to…drum roll please…BookCon! We are thrilled to partner with BookCon to share information about this huge event with our readers, and also to allow one lucky person – and a friend – to attend!

It’s all happening on May 30 and 31, 2015 in New York City. Writers and celebrities like Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries), Aisha Saeed (#WeNeedDiverseBooks), Anthony Breznican (Brutal Youth), and Libba Bray (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy), Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper)- and many, many more – will be there to tell stories, share content, meet and greet, and sign autographs. There will be literary quiz shows and other interactive activities too. BookCon is “where storytelling and pop culture collide.”

All you have to do is comment on this post and tell us why you’d like to attend. One person will be picked at random for the pair of tickets. (Sorry…we’re only getting you IN with two free tickets. Travel and accommodations are up to you.) Comments will close on March 31, 2015. Winners will be notified on April 1, 2015 by e-mail – so be sure to use a valid email address on the comment form.

Now hurry down to the comments and tell us why you want to attend. Good luck, everyone!

Like any collection, monitoring, shifting and keeping it fresh is the job of the librarian. Awful Library Books is no exception. ALB began as a platform to preach about the perils of ignoring a collection. Since we are still here almost five years later, we decided to expand our mission a bit. ALB will now include some of our own experiences and advice we have for taming a collection. To begin with, we have posted basic articles on getting started in collection management, weeding, etc. If you are a newbie, you will find this particularly helpful. Also, you will be happy to know that since we both have the attention span of fly, these articles are pretty short and to the point.

Regular ALB postings will continue, but now we have added a tab on the menu called Practical Librarian. Feel free to join us for some quick and dirty professional development.

(Image creative commons courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/14859431605)

Who wants to win not one, not two, but THREE awesome prizes from Knock Knock? That’s right, folks, we’ve teamed up again with Knock Knock for a three-prize giveaway for National Library Week. You can win a Personal Library Kit, pictured left, as well as a Reading Rumpus and a bookmark pad of your choice, such as those pictured below.

Simply comment on this post and tell us why you’d like to win. Three winners will be chosen at random by our trusty WordPress contest plug-in. One entry per person, please. Knock Knock has also asked us to limit winners to U.S. residents. The contest closes at midnight (12:00am EST) on Saturday, April 19, 2014, which is the last day of National Library Week.

But wait, there’s more! Awful Library Books readers will receive 25% off the Personal Library Kit by entering the code AWFUL at checkout. This is a one-time use code that ends on April 20, 2014.

Update: This contest is now closed. Winners will be notified the week of 4/21/2014!

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