Virtual NYS Battle of the Books

As we navigate our libraries in our new normal, the NYLA (YSS-SSL) NYS Battle of the Books (BOB) Planning Committee would like to help provide resources for you and your patrons during this time. We are working on providing BOB resources for virtual battles, for libraries to use for summer reading and beyond! So how can you help us help you?

1. Does your library/system/region have a Battle of the Books? If so please forward this email to your Committee Chair/ President. Easy!

2. We want your past BOB questions! We are working on collecting as many BOB question banks as we can, so libraries can choose books/questions based on what online books they have access to for their patrons. If you are able, please share your past year's question banks with us. We are also collecting practice and in-house battle questions.

3. Does your BOB have a handbook/rulebook? We'd love to see it! We are creating a NYS Virtual BOB Handbook and want to be able to link to all in-person BOB handbooks, as well as incorporate aspects of BOBs from all across NYS!

4. Have you or anyone in your library done any type of virtual trivia game? We are trying to figure out the best way to incorporate "buzzing" and team collaboration into a virtual BOB event. We'd love to here any and all ideas that have worked or not worked! This does not have to be from a Battle of the Books competition- we welcome information from all library staff who have done any trivia online.

We are hoping by gathering these resources we can put out enough information for libraries to use BOB in their suddenly-virtual Summer Reading Programs. This will be a great chance to try out BOB, keep your eager teams practicing, help kids/teens stay connected and work in teams, or just do a fun one-off for the summer! Obtaining all of this information will also help us moving forward towards our ultimate goal of an in-person state-wide Battle of the Books competition one day.

Please send information to and feel free to reach out with any questions to nysbattleofthebooks@gmail.com

Planning Committee Members - NYLA YSS/SSL NYS Battle of the Books :

Liz Anastasi - YSS Member

Jenn Gay - YSS Member

Melissa Iamonico - SSL Member

Elizabeth Portillo - YSS Member

Continue to visit this page for updates!