May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture
The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. The organization counts selection as the lecturer among its "Book & Media Awards", for selection recognizes a career contribution to children's literature. At the same time, the lecturer "shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children's literature", to be delivered as the Arbuthnot Lecture and to be published in the ALSC journal Children & Libraries.
The lecture was established in 1969 to honor the educator May Hill Arbuthnot. Arbuthnot was one creator of "Dick and Jane" readers and she wrote the first three editions of Children and Books. When informed of the new honorary lecture in her name, 'she recalled "that long stretch of years when I was dashing from one end of the country to the other, bringing children and books together by way of the spoken word."'
The lecturer may be an "author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, of any country". The Arbuthnot Lecture Committee selects one from a list of nominations, a process currently completed in January 15 to 18 months before the event. Then institutions apply to be the host: any "library school, department of education in college or university, or a children's library system". Several months later the same committee selects the host institution from the applicants.
2014 lecture
delivered the 2014 lecture at the University of Minnesota Libraries, Children's Literature Research Collections, Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. She was cited in January 2013 for "significant contributions to literature for young people provided through a body of work that brings a deeper understanding of African American heritage". She is the author of more than 20 books and founder of the "first African American children's book imprint at a major publishing company": Jump at the Sun at Hyperion Books for Children, the Disney Book Group. She is vice president and editor-at-large, Scholastic Trade Books.Lectures
| Year | Lecturer | Title | Host | City, State |
| 2020 | Sacramento Public Library | |||
| 2019 | University of Wisconsin–Madison | |||
| 2018 | "REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED - Our Lives of Reading & Writing" | Western Washington University Whatcom County Library System | ||
| 2017 | "What Gets Left Behind: Stories From The Great Migration" | South Carolina State Library The city of Columbia, South Carolina | ||
| 2016 | "Bookjoy! ¡Alegría en los libros!" | Santa Barbara Public Library System | ||
| 2015 | "Love Is a Dangerous Angel: Thoughts on Queerness and Family in Children's Books" | DC Public Library | ||
| 2014 | "Rejoice the Legacy!" | Children's Literature Research Collections University of Minnesota Libraries | ||
| 2013 | "War Boy to War Horse" | Nazareth College Youth Services Section of the New York Library Association | ||
| 2012 | "Reading in the Dark" | Miami University | ||
| 2011 | "Unleaving: The Staying Power of Gold" | St. Louis County Library | ||
| 2010 | "Can Children's Books Save the World? Advocates for Diversity in Children's Books and Libraries" | Riverside County Library System | ||
| 2009 | Langston Hughes Library at the Children's Defense Fund Alex Haley Farm | |||
| 2008 | "Thirteen Studios" | South Central Library System | ||
| 2007 | "Books As Shelter: Going Home Again and Again" | McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature, University of Kentucky SLIS | ||
| 2006 | Williamsburg Regional Library The Library of Virginia Virginia Foundation for the Humanities | |||
| 2005 | "Mutuality" | Free Library of Philadelphia Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School | ||
| 2004 | "Cheek by Jowl: Animals in Children's Literature" | Maricopa County Library District Arizona State University Arizona Center for the Book | ||
| 2003 | "Descent into Limbo" | Cambridge Public Library Children's Literature, Inc. | ||
| 2002 | "So She Went Into the Garden" | Le Frak Hall, Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies | ||
| 2001 | "Time and Again" | Scottish Rite Center Multnomah County Library | ||
| 2000 | Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut | |||
| 1999 | "Editorial License: On Library Selection Connections" | San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science | ||
| 1998 | "Instead of a Lecture" | Richland County Public Library College of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina | ||
| 1997 | "In Search of Wonder" | Northern State University | ||
| 1996 | Dallas Public Library | |||
| 1995 | "Imaginings and Images" | University of Wisconsin | ||
| 1994 | "Across the Years, Across the Seas: Notes from an Errant Editor" | Coronado Public Library | ||
| 1993 | "Everything of Value: Moral Realism in the Literature for Children" | Virginia Center for the Book | ||
| 1992 | "Developing Lifetime Readers" | Montana Library Association annual conference | ||
| 1991 | Library of Congress | |||
| 1990 | New Orleans Public Library | |||
| 1989 | University of Pittsburgh | |||
| 1988 | "Pushing up the Sun a Little" | University of Oklahoma | ||
| 1987 | Northern Illinois University | |||
| 1986 | "All of a Tremble to See His Danger" | University of Arkansas | ||
| 1985 | "Stones into Pools" | Indiana University Stone Hills Area Library Services Authority | ||
| 1984 | "Bell, Book and Candle" | Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center | ||
| 1983 | "Children and the Voices of Literature" | Center for the Study of Literature for Young People at the University of Georgia | ||
| 1982 | "From Books to Buttons: Reflections From the Thirties to the Eighties" | Florida State University | ||
| 1981 | "Information: A Necessity for Survival: Strategies for the Promotion of Children's Books in a Developing Country" | Texas Woman's University | ||
| 1980 | "German Children's Literature From Its Beginning to the Nineteenth Century: A Historical Perspective" | University of Wisconsin | ||
| 1979 | "Beyond the Garden Wall: Some Observations on Current Trends in Children's Literature" | University of South Carolina | ||
| 1978 | "Tom and Laura from Right to Left: American Children's Books Experienced by Young Hebrew Readers" | Boston Public Library | ||
| 1977 | "One of the Dozens" | Boise State University | ||
| 1976 | Los Angeles Public Library | |||
| 1975 | "Talent Is Not Enough" | Drexel University | ||
| 1974 | "Real Adventure Belongs To Us" | University of Washington | ||
| 1973 | "Fortunate Moments in Children's Books" | University of Missouri | ||
| 1972 | "One World in Children's Books" | University of Chicago | ||
| 1971 | "Standards of Criticism for Children's Literature" | Atlanta Memorial Arts Center | ||
| 1970 | "Rights and Wrongs" | Case Western Reserve University |
Repeat lectures
has hosted two lectures.Two lecture titles allude to The Secret Garden, a 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.