Best-selling Scottish children’s author to attend Britannica’s prize-giving ceremony
in celebration of International Literacy Day 2010
Edinburgh-born Linda Strachan, author of the popular Hamish McHaggis series, to present prizes
to the winners of Encyclopædia Britannica’s Scottish national competition

Event: Scottish competition prize-giving ceremony
Date: Wednesday 8th September 2010
Time: 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, EH3 5NZ

To mark International Literacy Day (8th September 2010), a special prize-giving event will take place at the beautiful Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh in celebration of Scottish history and literature. Highly acclaimed children’s author Linda Strachan, whose works include Dead Boy Talking, Spider and the popular Hamish McHaggis series, will present prizes to the winners of a national competition which was launched by Edinburgh-born Encyclopædia Britannica in July.

Over 3000 library members from all over Scotland logged on to Encyclopædia Britannica either from a library computer or from home to complete a short, entertaining quiz covering key elements of Scottish history, politics and literature.

Natasha MacNamee from Dunfermline (Junior category), wins an 8 GB iPod nano, Craig Simpson from Dirleton (Student category), wins an 8 GB Apple iPod touch and Carol Caldow from Auchinleck (Adult category), wins an Apple MacBook computer.

Invaluable for anyone keen to get help with their homework or project research, pursue a personal interest or get the background to the latest news, Encyclopædia Britannica is available free online to Scottish public library members from within the library as well as from their home PC using their library card. The information from Britannica’s 4,000 global contributors is easy to use. It is media-rich with thousands of graphics, videos, audio clips, interactive games and quizzes that make it an exciting resource to use. There are separate home pages for adults and children making it easy to use and age appropriate for everyone. Britannica Online offers multiple resources in one location – encyclopaedic articles, biographies, news headlines from the BBC, the classics and much more.

Ian Grant, Managing Director of Encyclopædia Britannica, comments: “Encyclopædia Britannica is proud of its Scottish heritage and the long-established relationship with Scotland’s public libraries in providing local communities with access to the latest accurate information. Our national competition was created to raise awareness of the fantastic resources provided by local libraries and encourage people to take advantage of them.”

To attend the prize-giving event, please RSVP to Jennifer Jackson, Livewire Public Relations, by 27th August 2010, on 020 8339 7440 or email: jennifer.jackson@livewirepr.com.

About Encyclopædia Britannica:
Encyclopædia Britannica has been a leader in reference and education publishing since 1768. Britannica has been a pioneer in electronic publishing since the early 1980s. It publishes products which can be found in a variety of media, from the internet to mobile phones to books.

About Linda Strachan:
Edinburgh-born Linda Strachan, author of over 60 books, writes for all ages, from young children to teenagers and adults.
Her works include the best-selling Hamish McHaggis series as well as a writing handbook for newly published and aspiring authors. Her first teenage novel – the highly acclaimed ‘Spider’ - was published in 2008 and was a finalist in the Red Book Awards. It was also on the long list for the Lancashire Book Awards, the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books and is currently on the shortlist for two further awards, the Catalyst Book Awards (October 2010) and the Dumfries Burgh Book Awards (February 2011).
Her latest novel for teenagers ‘Dead Boy Talking’ was published in June 2010.
For more information about Linda, visit her website: www.lindastrachan.com.

Livewire Public Relations
Jenny Jackson or Louise Peto
+44 (0)20 8339 7440
jennifer.jackson@livewirepr.com