Library Design Showcase Online Submission Now Available

I am pleased to announce that you can now submit your new and renovated buildings for American Libraries’ April Library Design Showcase online. We’ve bought a YouSendIt account to handle the very large files that this entails. As a result, sending the files will be slightly more complicated than simply sending an e-mail—but not much, and hopefully less involved than having to assemble a package for snail mail. First off, I recommend you use WinZip or a similar compression application to compress your files—a selection of high-quality interior and exterior pictures and the submission form (or a word document containing the information)—into a single file. YouSendIt only allows one file of up to 100 MB to be sent at a time on a free account, so you may need to make a couple different files if they are very large. Second, you will need to sign up for a free YouSendIt account to use the system. To do so, go to www.yousendit.com, click the “Sign Up” button, and sign up for the free “Lite” account. The system will ask you fairly standard account-creation questions (username, password, real name, and the like) and send you a conformation e-mail with the activation link. Once you’ve activated your account, log in and click the “Send” button. In the “To:” field, enter my address, glandgraf@ala.org. Input a subject and message if you wish, and click the “Browse” button to find and attach your file. Then click “Send It” and your files will be on their way. (You’ll be given premium, and paid, delivery options; I suggest you ignore them.) As this is the first time trying this experiment, I plan to send an e-mail confirmation of receipt for all online submissions. So if you don’t receive that, generally within a business day, something has gone wrong and please send a follow-up message to me at glandgraf@ala.org. As this is something of an experiment, please share your comments, problems, or suggestions. And as a reminder, submissions are due February 2.