 The
Center was created and is maintained to serve as a resource for UK students,
public librarians, school librarians, teachers, parents, and authors and
illustrators of children's literature. The Center consists of three seperate
collections:
-
The Traveling Collection--These are uncatalogued, non-circulating
children's books published in the current year. They are available for
examination as an aid in making purchasing decisions or as a tool to expand
current knowledge of trends in children's and young adult literature.
-
The Permanent Collection--These award-winning books from past years
are available for examination in the Center. Reference materials and periodicals
are also available to aid in retrospective collection development or research
in the field.
-
The Lab Collection--These are also award-wining books from past
years that do circulate to students and researchers.
All of these collections include: picture books, early childhood materials,
easy readers, juvenile fiction, young adult fiction, Dewey classified non-fiction,
and reference materials.
 The
McConnell Center also hosts the annual McConnell
Literature Conference in Lexington. The Conference celebrated its 30th
anniversary in 1998. It draws librarians and teachers from three states
to share ideas, examine materials, and meet authors and other leaders in
the field of Children's Literature. The new book exhibit available for
examination at the McConnell Literature Conference is also made available
at the annual meetings of the Kentucky Library Association and Kentucky
School Media Association.
A
number of the books come to the Center from Kentucky
Department for Libraries and Archives, but book and periodical purchases
are supported by the Anne McConnell fund. Donations to this fund are encouraged
if you find the collection useful or if you wish to support the students,
researchers, and librarians who use the collections daily. Make checks
payable to "The Anne McConnell Fund" and mail them to:
The McConnell Center
C/O The School of Library & Information Science
502 King Library South
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0039. |
