ALSC National Institute

I've been here in Salt Lake City for the last couple of days at the ALSC National Institute. One of the highlights was the Friday morning "Breakfast for Bill," the first such event. The breakfast was in honor of Bill Morris, the much-loved director of library marketing for HarperCollins who passed away in 2003. The sad thing was that only a handful of the 200+ attendees knew who Bill Morris was. Granted, you would have had to have attended ALA conferences to have known Bill. He was a tiny guy who knew your name and would always suggest books that he thought you'd like.

It make me think that ALSC needs to do something to help younger librarians know the larger context of this whole world of publishers, librarians and children's books. Leonard Marcus' book "Minders of Make Believe" is a good start.