Steven J. Bell is the first runner up in the federated search writing contest. The aim of the contest was to predict the future of federated search. Below is Steven’s bio and his essay, in its entirety.

Steven J. Bell is Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University. Previously he was Director of the Library at Philadelphia University and Assistant Director at Penn’s Wharton School Library, where he also earned his Ed.D. He writes and speaks about academic librarianship, learning technologies and library management. An Adjunct Professor at Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology, he teaches the academic librarianship course. His website and blog, “Steven Bell’s Keeping Up Web Site” and “The Kept-Up Academic Librarian” promote current awareness skills and resources. Steven is a co-founder of the Blended Librarian’s Online Learning Community on the Learning Times Network and has participated in numerous virtual presentations. He blogs for ACRLog, ACRL’s official Weblog, and Designing Better Libraries, a blog about design thinking and library user experiences. He is co-author of the book “Academic Librarianship by Design”. For additional information about Steven J. Bell or links to his projects, point your browser to http://stevenbell.info.

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Lee LeBlanc is the second runner up in the federated search writing contest. The aim of the contest was to predict the future of federated search. Below is Lee’s bio and his essay, in its entirety.

Lee LeBlanc is Continuing Education and Emerging Technologies Coordinator at SWFLN. Lee’s main interests are “continuous” education, leadership within libraries, and the strategic use of emerging technology in libraries.

Lee is one semester away from a Masters of Information and Library Science with concentrations in Information Architecture and Technology. Lee’s work career has somehow always revolved around information science. Having a librarian as a mentor after he got out of the military and worked through his undergrad, he developed a deep appreciation for what libraries could do for individuals and their communities.

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The six judges, noted federated search experts, have selected Rich Turner, Vice President of Marketing at Content Analyst Company, LLC, as the grand-prize writing contest winner. Mr. Turner receives a $500 award from contest and blog sponsor Deep Web Technologies. Additionally, his essay will be published in the April edition of Information Today’s Computers in Libraries Magazine. And, if that weren’t enough, Mr. Turner will participate in a panel discussion with noted industry experts Frank Cervone and Jeff Wisniewski at the upcoming Computers in Libraries Conference.

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A quick contest update: The six judges, noted federated search experts, are reading the contest submissions and assessing them for quality of writing, originality and vision. I will be announcing the three winners sometime in December. Note that I have removed the author names from the submissions so that the judging happens blindly.

This blog will publish a press release announcing the winners. This will give the three winners much deserved recognition. Plus, of course, the first prize winner will receive tremendous recognition at the Computers in Libraries Conference on April 1st of next year. (No April Fool’s joke.) And, the top winner will have his or her essay published in Computers in Libraries Magazine.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you submitted an essay to me and you and I have not interacted by email in the last four or five days you need to contact me ASAP; I want to make sure I did not miss any entries.

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To those of you still working on your essays for the “predict the future of federated search” writing contest, you have just three days to get your submissions in.

Read all about the contest and the career-boosting prizes here.

I have acknowledged every submission I’ve received so, if you submitted an entry and didn’t hear back from me please contact me again. I do regularly check my spam folder to make sure none of your submissions get lost.

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Submissions are due for the federated search writing contest by October 31st. That’s less that three weeks from today. If you’re thinking of submitting an entry, I still have some $25 Amazon.com gift certificates to give to those of you whose entries are among the first ten. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the contest, you can read all the details in this article. Here’s the gist of the contest:

1. Write an original essay predicting the future of federated search.

2. Best essay wins $500. Second and third prizes are $250 and $100.

3. First prize winner’s entry will be published in Computers In Libraries Magazine.

4. First prize winner will attend the Computers In Libraries Conference March 30-April 1, 2009. Travel and lodging expenses will be paid by Deep Web Technologies.

5. First prize winner will be formally recognized at the Computers In Libraries Conference.

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We’re six and a half weeks away from the October 31 deadline for the federated search writing contest. From the questions I’ve received, I know there’s interest in the contest. I’d like to see a bunch of early submissions so I’m going to try to entice those of you who are on the fence about submitting, or putting it off until the last minute, to start writing.

Blog and contest sponsor Deep Web Technologies will give a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate to those of you whose submissions are among the first ten. If you’re outside of the U.S. they’ll send you $25.00 via PayPal. If you’ve already sent me a submission I’ll email you to arrange sending your “early bird” gift. To be eligible for the $25.00 you must submit a serious entry and follow all the rules of the contest in the announcement post.

I know there are visionaries out there. The noted industry experts serving as contest judges look forward to your essays.

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The writing contest that I announced June 2nd has grown in some very exciting ways. Several of us who are involved in the planning of the contest wanted to create an event that would have tremendous impact for the career of the top prize winner so we’ve changed some key details of the contest to accommodate its expansion.

The first change, really an addition, is that we got the planners of the Computers In Libraries Conference to schedule time during their 2009 Conference (March 30-April 1) to have the top prize winner present his or her essay and share thoughts about their vision. That by itself can bring one’s career to the next level or be that powerful first break that a new graduate can greatly benefit from. And, contest sponsor Deep Web Technologies will pick up the winner’s travel and lodging expenses. Plus, the $500 grand prize is a nice bonus on top of that.

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As announced in Deep Web Technologies’ recent press release, six noted federated search experts will be serving as judges for the federated search writing contest. Predict the future of federated search and win $100, $250, or $500 in cash.

If you publish a blog related to federated search, information science, or to library science I’d very much appreciate a mention of our contest.

Entries are due August 1st.

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The Federated Search Blog is launching a writing contest.

What will the landscape of federated search look like in ten years?

Three prizes will be awarded by blog sponsor Deep Web Technologies for the best original essays predicting the future of federated search technology.

• First prize is $500.
• Second prize is $250.
• Third prize is $100.

Update 7/10/08: Submission deadline has been changed to October 31, 2008. Also, the first prize winner’s entry will be published in Computers In Libraries Magazine and the first prize winner agrees to present his or her winning essay at the Computers In Libraries Conference March 30-April 1, 2009. Deep Web Technologies will pay travel and lodging expenses for the first prize winner.

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