Tournament Rules

•   Teams shall consist of no less than 3 and no more than 5 students in grades 9-12 for high school or grades 6-8 for middle school. Librarians may recruit, select, and manage their teams as they choose.
•  The tournament shall follow a “round robin” format, with the top scoring teams facing off in a final battle.

Tournament Questions

• Questions will be provided/supplemented by local librarians.
•  Each librarian may be assigned books for which to make questions. They will be required to create 20 questions for each book assigned. The tournament coordinator may choose some of those questions for the final tournament
•  Each question will follow this format: “In which book…?”
•  To correctly answer the question, the team must provide the full title of the book.

 Officials

•  Each breakout room will have 2 officials: a reader and a timekeeper/judge. The team librarians may perform these roles if no other volunteers are found.
• The reader will read questions from a packet of official questions, clearly marked for each round. Librarians may perform this role if necessary.

Process and Scoring

•  Teams will flip a coin to determine who gets the first question.
•  Each team will tell the reader who is serving as its captain. The reader will only accept answers that come from the captain.
•  The “odd” team will go first and will be read question one.
•  The team will have 30 seconds after the reading of the question to give a response through the team captain. Only the first answer the captain gives will be accepted; the team will not be able to guess additional titles.
•  If a team gives an incorrect title, the opposing team may steal the question for an additional point. The question will be repeated to the “acquiring” team, which will then have 15 seconds to supply an answer. If the acquiring team does not answer correctly, then no one will receive a point.
•  Regardless of who scored on the last question, even numbered questions will always be read to the even numbered team; odd numbered questions will always be read to the odd numbered team.
•  If a team has begun its response before time is called, it will be allowed to complete it.
•  Each round will consist of 20 questions. After 10 questions have been asked, a half-time score will be announced by the timekeeper/judge.

 Challenges:

•  If a team believes their answer was unfairly deemed “incorrect”, the team may challenge the question. They must announce the challenge immediately after being told their answer is incorrect. 
•  Once the challenge is initiated, the team will be given 3 minutes to find proof in the book. The challenge team will examine the proof and decide the point.
•  If the judges still believe the answer is incorrect, then the opposing team may have a chance to steal the question for another point.
•  A team may only have 2 challenges during the tournament.