K. T. Horning Joins Distinguished List of Arbuthnot Lecturers
RSSBy School Library Journal -- School Library Journal, 02/05/2009
Kathleen T. Horning, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), joins the list of distinguished names who have delivered the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.
K. T. Horning
“It was a big surprise and a great honor,” says Horning, who goes by the name K.T., when she heard her name announced as the 2010 lecturer at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Youth Media Awards ceremony in Denver last week. “Now all I have to do is write the lecture.”
Arbuthnot Committee Chair Kristi Jemtegaard, says, “I am struck by the clarity of Horning’s thought processes as well as her ability to express those thoughts gracefully,” adding that Horning will make a great addition to the already distinguished list of Arbuthnot Lecturers,” which include Walter Dean Myers (2009), David Macaulay (2008) and the former editor-in-chief of School Library Journal, Lillian Gerhardt (1999).
According to ALA, Horning has clearly promoted three things in her long and illustrious career: the freedom to read and open access to information for young people; the continued struggle to produce a body of authentically multicultural literature for young people in the United States; and the need to provide clear practical training for both new and experienced librarians, especially with regard to evaluating (and setting high standards for) literature for young people.
When asked who her mentors were, Horning quickly replied, Ginny Moore Kruse of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jane Bothans, past president of Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC).
Horning says she first met Moore Kruse as an undergraduate at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Her passion for books was the reason I decided to go to library school,” Horning says. “I worked with her for many years and not for her I would have become a linguist in Irish Gallic. Bothans was president of ALSC when Horning became involved with ALA. “She got me hooked on the work of the division and its committees,” she says.
As director of the CCBC, Horning coordinates a noncirculating examination, study, and research library for books, ideas, and expertise in the field of children's and young adult literature. She is the author of From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Book (HarperCollins, 1997), and is the immediate past-president of ALSC and a past president of the United States Board on Books for Young People.
The lecturer, announced annually at ALA’s midwinter meeting, goes to an author, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature, of any country, who shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature.
The paper is delivered as a lecture each April, and is subsequently published in Children and Libraries, the journal of ALSC. Once the name is made public, institutions may apply to host the lecture. Library schools, departments of education in a college or university, or public library systems are eligible to apply. Applications to host the 2010 lecture will be available online from ALSC at this spring.
