Montevallo, Ala. – The University of Montevallo will dedicate the children’s book collection of Pat Scales in the Carmichael Library on the University campus. The reception will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13.
The dedication will occur during the University’s Homecoming and College Night festivities, as Scales will be celebrating the 50th reunion of graduating as member of the 1966 class of Alabama College.
Scales’ collection has the potential to be the most important scholarly compilation of children’s literature in the south, rivaling the de Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Baldwin Library Collection at the University of Florida.
The collection boasts approximately 3,000 titles, with selections including visually stunning pop-up books and signed first editions of Newbery and Caldecott award winning books.
Scales, herself has served as chair of the prestigious Newbery, Caldecott and Wilder Award Committees. She is also a past President of the Association of Library Service for Children, a division of the American Library Association.
Following her graduation from UM, known at the time as Alabama College, Scales devoted herself to a career as a middle and high school librarian. Her program Communicate Through Literature was featured on the Today Show and in various professional journals.
She received the ALA/Grolier Award in 1997 and was feature in Library Journal’s first issue of Movers and Shakers in Libraries: People Who Are Shaping the Future of Libraries.
Scales has been actively involved with ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee for a number of years, is a member of the Freedom to Read Foundation, serves on the Council of Advisers of the National Coalition Against Censorship, and acts as a spokesperson for first amendment issues as they relate to children and young adults.
She is the author of several titles regarding banned books, including “Teaching Banned Books: Twelve Guides for Young Readers”, “Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your School Library” and “Books Under Fire: A Hit List of Banned and Challenged Children’s Books.” She writes a bi-monthly column, Scales on Censorship, for School Library Journal, a monthly column for the Random House website, curriculum guides on children’s and young adult books for a number of publishers, and is a regular contributor to Book Links magazine.
For more information regarding the dedication ceremony please contact Carrie Smith, Media Relations and Communications Specialist, at (205) 665-6227.
About The University of Montevallo
The University of Montevallo seeks to be unique in higher education in Alabama, by providing students from throughout the state an affordable, geographically accessible, “small college” public higher educational experience of high quality. Settled within an atmosphere of national historic beauty and offering a tradition of innovative cultural expression, we seek to provide professional programs supported by a broad base of arts and sciences that are designed for intellectual and personal growth in the pursuit of meaningful employment and responsible, informed citizenship.