FAQ

Please see “For Library Staff” for exact details! 

I work at a public library in the US but I don’t have my MLS/my title isn’t “librarian.” Can I vote?
Anyone who is affiliated with a public library*, at any staff level, can vote for LibraryReads. Please encourage your colleagues to join in! The only requirement is that you must have an account with either Edelweiss or NetGalley (or, both!). We do cross-check to knock out any duplicate votes, so don’t worry if you like to use both services and accidentally duplicate a vote. The biggest thing is to make certain your profile on those platforms show you work in a public library. If you are concerned your profile is not correct, send us an email and we’ll try to help! Be sure to edit your profile to identify yourself affiliated with a public library, or your vote won’t count. If you currently have a “reviewer” status but do work in a public library, please reach out to us so we can help get your vote counted!
*Yes, this includes volunteer capacity! If you are wondering if you count, the two-part test is this: are you eligible to register for NetGalley or Edelweiss in a public library capacity, and, would we be able to credit you as being affiliated with your library if we selected one of your vote annotations for publication?

What should I vote for?
Any PRE-PUB ADULT title you enjoyed. (Votes are due by 12 midnight Eastern time on the 1st of the month before a book’s publication month.)
Please do not vote for YA and Youth titles.
There is no limit to the number of books you can vote for, so vote away!

Do I wait until the month before to vote?
You don’t have to “hold” your votes until the deadline–you can submit them at any point at least one month before pub date. We get all the info from both databases and just sort by the current month as needed.

Can I vote for a book I haven’t finished by the deadline?
Absolutely, feel free to vote for something you liked but haven’t finished! It’s perfectly acceptable (and happens a lot, we know how big those TBR piles get!).

If an author makes your Hall of Fame, does that mean I don’t need to vote for their subsequent books?
Please continue to vote for authors you assume will get on the Hall of Fame, because they still need your votes! They don’t automatically make the Hall of Fame with their next title, it has to place on the list per usual.

Do I have to write a review/annotation/rating for my vote to count?
You do not have to do a review in order to vote! We love when you do, though, because they are an integral part of our list. The main things to remember, if you want them to be considered for the list, are to keep them short, to make them as informative as possible (instead of, “I loved this book!”), use RA appeal factors and readalike suggestions if you can, and know that we reserve the right to edit them for use on the list.
Ratings:  You do need to assign an overall number rating in Edelweiss to your votes. All votes are counted, regardless of the ratings assigned.

Who chooses the readalike suggestions?
Our wonderful friends at NoveList provide a readalike title for each of the list selections; annotators and our editing team select the suggestions that appear as part of each title’s annotation.

I don’t use an e-reader. Can I still vote for LibraryReads?
Absolutely! Your best bet is through Edelweiss. You can use NetGalley, however, you DO need to be approved for a title on NetGalley before you can vote for it. That doesn’t mean you have to download it, if you have a paper ARC already, but you do have to request and be approved.