ALSC Arbuthnot Lecture host site announced

Contact: Meredith Paret, ALSC Program Coordinator


312-280-2166

mparets@ala.org

For Immediate Release


August 1, 2003

ALSC Arbuthnot Lecture host site announced

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is pleased to announce that Phoenix has been chosen as the site of the 2004 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture. Award-winning author Ursula K. LeGuin will deliver the lecture, which will be co-hosted by the Maricopa County Library District, Arizona State University, and the Arizona Center for the Book.

“Arizona seems a particularly appropriate site for Ms. LeGuin’s lecture,” said Tim Wadham, children’s services coordinator of the Maricopa County Library District, in his successful host site application. “The heritage of Arizona’s settlement speaks to the themes of utopian society that Ms. LeGuin has addressed in her novels.”

Though a date has not yet been confirmed, the lecture is planned in conjunction with the annual Arizona Book Festival, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 3. In addition, Professor Alleen Nilsen of the University of Arizona is planning a conference on LeGuin’s work, to be held the week prior to the Arbuthnot Lecture.

Members of the 2004 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Committee are: Chair, Penny Markey, County of Los Angeles Public Library; Ellen Fader, Multnomah County (Ore.) Library; Marilyn P. Hollinshead; Caroline Parr, Central Rappahannock (Va.) Regional Library; and John Peters, Central Children’s Room, New York Public Library.