RPL LEND US YOUR STORY VIDEO CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT A.M. CEREMONY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 24, 2012

Three Youths Win Prizes in “Lend Us Your Story” Video Contest

Rochester, N.Y.-- Mayor Thomas S. Richards and Rochester Public Library Director Patricia Uttaro announced today that three young people from Rochester are the winners of the Lend Us Your Story Video Contest. Ove Overmyer, President of the City of Rochester Library Workers Local 828 Unit 7420 was the Project Manager.

The winners are:

· First Place: “Moses at the Maplewood Branch Library” (Video No. 12), by Moses Ntekereze, 14, an eighth grader at Knob Hill SDA School.

· Second Place: “Oumou Says There Are No Bullies at the Library” (Video No. 10), Oumou Mbodji, 12, a student at the Helen Barrett Montgomery School No. 50.

· Third Place: “Why the Library Rocks” (Video No. 37) by Christina Burnett, 18, a senior at the School Without Walls who received a scholarship to attend RIT this fall.

left to right: Moses Ntekereze, Oumou Mbodji and Christina Burnett
photo: Deb Nevin (RPL)

“I want to extend my congratulations and gratitude to the award winners and everyone who participated in this tremendous contest,” said Mayor Richards. “We are fortunate in Rochester to have such an outstanding library system, and it is gratifying to see just how much our customers appreciate that good fortune. Libraries are an essential public service, and the videos entered in this contest and the activity they generated have brought the value of that service into sharp focus.”

“I offer my congratulations to the contest winners and participants,” said Director Uttaro. “Lend Us Your Story grew out of a desire to give Library patrons a voice in describing the value libraries bring to their daily lives. The result is an invaluable collection of poignant, funny and moving stories that offer a telling picture of life in Rochester’s neighborhoods as seen through the eyes of those who share a love of learning, reading and all the wonderful programming we offer at the Rochester Public Library.”

“The Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library is proud to support the Lend Us Your Story video contest by donating Kindles to the winners,” said Executive Director Ned Davis. “We are committed to ensuring that our historic Public Library continues to play a vital role in our city. This contest has served to affirm the goals of that mission by showing us how and why so many people love their libraries.”

The RPL and the City launched the social-media video contest in April, in which library patrons submitted a short (no longer than 90 seconds) YouTube video that expressed their favorite aspects of the Library. The videos could be about something that changed the direction of a patron’s life, the simple pleasures of finding a good book to read or any other meaningful library experience customers wanted to share.

The videos were hosted on the City’s website, where the general public could view them and select their favorites. Moses, the top vote-getter, has been awarded a Kindle Fire electronic reader and the second- and third-place finishers, Oumou and Christina, each received a Kindle e-reader.

The prizes were donated by the Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library.

A total of 120 videos were submitted, of which 78 were eligible to win prizes in the contest. Customers viewed the videos more than 4,000 times and cast more than 3,200 votes for their favorite videos. The award winning videos earned 821; 697 and 446 votes respectively.

The submission period was held April 1-30 and the voting period was May 7 through 18.

To accommodate patrons who didn’t have video cameras or the ability to access the Internet, video crews visited City branch libraries during the submission period to record their stories.

To view the videos, vist www.lendusyourstory.org.