Election time!

No, not that election, silly. A much more civilized and less contentious one, the American Library Association, our beloved professional organization. Those ballots open today!

I happen to be on that ballot twice -- once for the 2018 YALSA Nonfiction Award, once for AASL's Regional Director. If you are reading this, you probably know my raison d'etre happens to be reading, books, libraries, literacy. If you are a member of those divisions, I would appreciate your vote(s).

But I also have some recommendations.

AASL 
President-elect: Steven Yates. Steven is a fellow Alabamian, a fellow school librarian, a solid fellow full of graciousness and responsibility. He also can have hard conversations. Excited to see where he takes AASL...

ALSC
President-elect: Ernie Cox. Smart guy, has done the hard work to get here. And if that's not enough, Ernie chaired the Newbery that picked Last Stop on Market Street, so he thinks out of the box.
Board of directors:
Amy Koester You can't get more dedicated to children's services.
Newbery:
Sarah Wethern Sarah is a voracious reader, watcher, thinker with very good taste. I trust her implicitly.
Angie Manfredi Whip-smart social justice warrior, perhaps the smartest person on the front lines today.
Caldecott:
Sylvia Vardell USBBY stalwart, promoter of poetry in this age of ours.
Katie Salo One of those twitter friends who constantly impressed you with her enthusiasm and smarts.

YALSA 
Board of Directors:
Robin Kurz When you work on a committee with someone, you can tell if they are conscientious, and Robin most certainly is.
Kafi Kumasi I met Kafi at an IMLS seminar at Indiana in 2006 and have been following her solid work over the last decade.
Printz:
Kathy Burnette Someone I just know from online, but Kathy's thoughtful presence there bodes well.
Edi Campbell One of the absolute best kidlit bloggers out there.
Margaret A. Edwards:
Jennifer Anne Rothschild  Somehow, Jen manages to be quick, deep, and connected, all at the same time.

Long time, no blog

Three months? Been gone for a minute, but now I’m back with the jump-off, as Lil’ Kim once said so pithily.

Wow, January and February were rough. There was that too-early Midwinter with some super-charged Batchelder Award conversations, the anointing of our glorious winner The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy, then some life and death family drama, too … too little time to think, let alone write down thoughts ex post facto...

But some positives, too:

• I'm sad I couldn't make the LAMBDA Summit in Knoxville this week. That looked really important. 
• Our state library association conference next month. Spy theme!
• Our state school library association conference this June. Joyce Valenza! Submit your proposal to present today. And we have scholarships, and shiny awards, too, so Alabama peeps should get on it... 
• I'm planning to go to AASL’s CLASS II Research Summit this April in Washington, D.C. Causation, how you gonna prove it?
• Gaming as Meaningful Education: AASL & Gaming RT conference this September in Rochester. The Fall Forum morphs into something really enticing.
• Data Literacy Webinars (sponsored by IMLS/4T) all online July 14-15, mark your calendars now. Part of a really exciting IMLS funded project from the smart people at the University of Michigan.

And just when I was sort of over Twitter, taken over as it has been by amateur marketers, but Lauren Laverne reels me back in… but, no, seriously, I'm checking out (if not posting) to insta & tumblr much more often these days.

Looking back on the eight-year cycle of my mental health, I can’t be the only person who gets the presidential election blues. I basically have to avoid the mainstream media to function AT ALL. How DO you cope?