The Everett Public Library will receive $1,000 in audiobooks after taking a runner-up position in the Playaway Picture This Photo Contest. A Playaway machine is an MP3 player, about the size of a deck of playing cards, that plays a specific audiobook title.

Library staff tried to drum up votes in the nationwide contest and they were one of the top vote-getters until the end.

The contest winner receives $10,000 for whatever use the library sees fit. The three runner-up libraries will receive $1,000 worth of Playaways.

“We don’t know the total number of votes yet,” library director Eileen Simmons said. “We don’t know if we were two votes behind or 2,000.”

She said the winner seemed to have launched a “stealth attack,” zipping up from the bottom of the list to the top in the last days of the contest.