ACRL is pleased to co-sponsor the second annual Sparky Awards, a contest organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) to recognize the best new short videos illustrating the value of information sharing. It aims to broaden the discussion of access to scholarly research by inviting students to express their views creatively. The competition showcases student productions and offers instructors a fun and thought-provoking class assignment.
By co-sponsoring, ACRL hopes that librarians will use this contest as a tool for talking with students and faculty about information use and policy, thereby increasing information fluency in a creative way. This contest supports librarians in engaging with a population which increasingly embraces user-generated content.
The 2008 contest theme is “MindMashup: The Value of Information Sharing.” Well-suited for adoption as a college class assignment, the Sparky Awards invites contestants to submit videos of two minutes or less that imaginatively portray the benefits of the open, legal exchange of information. Entries must be received by November 30, 2008. For full details, see the contest Web site. ACRL joins the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Penn Libraries (at the University of Pennsylvania), Students for Free Culture (SFC), and The Student PIRGs in co-sponsoring the contest with SPARC.