Dear ALA Members:

Now is the time to vote! To vote for what you want to have happen at ALA Annual!

As explained at this ALA News Press Release, voting is open until March 31, 2013 for Conversation Starters and Ignite Sessions.

“Conversation Starters” are “fast-paced 45-minute sessions intended to jumpstart conversations and highlight emerging topics and trends.”  Go here to read the proposals and vote for them.

“Ignite Sessions” “give presenters five minutes to share what they’re most passionate about in the library world and inspire an audience to join them. Ignite speakers present for exactly five minutes, accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, with slides advancing automatically.” Go here to read the proposals and vote for them.

You can vote for as many as you want.

These votes will count towards 30 percent of the selection process. Staff votes and an advisory group count for the remaining 70 percent of the decision.

Kelly Jensen of Stacked and my co-author Sophie Brookover and I have submitted a Conversation Starter, New Adult Fiction: What Is It and Is It Really Happening? ”New Adult Fiction (NA) has made waves in the New York Times, the Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more. Depending on who you ask, NA either demands its own section of the library or is just a new name to describe books about twenty-somethings, which libraries have always carried. Maybe it’s “young adult books with sex.” Maybe it’s books about emerging adults trying to figure out the world before an uncertain future happens. Join a lively discussion on what NA may be, who’s reading it, where it’s shelved, how we catalog it, and how it fits into reader’s advisory.”

Please go and consider voting for our Starter!

And, if you have a Conversation Starter or Ignite Session, please share details in the comments.

And remember, you have to be an ALA member; and voting is open until the end of March.