One candidate for president-elect of the American Library Association (ALA) is a woman, the other is a man. One can tell them apart by looking at them. But Nancy Davenport and James Rettig are not that far apart on the issues that confront the old association and the profession it serves. They have selected slightly different emphases for their ALA presidential campaigns, but both drew platforms from ALA's Strategic Long Range Plan, adopted in June 2005. Before the campaign, a memo to each candidate from Elizabeth Dreazen, director of the Office of ALA Governance, reminded them of a 1999 ALA Executive Board directive. "In view of the commitment to formulating an ongoing, focused ALA-wide campaign with a central theme the Board voted to direct all future presidents to utilize this theme to put forward their presidential initiatives and not develop separate themes," quotes Dreazen. "Instead, presidents are encouraged to define an area of focus for their programmatic activities and to explore their personal concerns in their presentations and personal communications," Dreazen explains. The board asserted that this action would "eliminate member confusion about ALA's primary focus and enable the Association to channel its spending to achieve a greater impact." The ALA course is broad and deep. It leaves plenty of latitude for Rettig and Davenport to differ from each other. The major difference between these two candidates, however, rests in their experience. Davenport has an edge in national and global-level library activity while Rettig is more experienced in hands-on librarianship, especially the changing role of reference service in academe. Davenport will focus on recruiting new librarians, and both candidates cite increased member participation in ALA as an important theme.