Alice G. Smith Lecture

The Alice G. Smith Lecture, established in 1989, is sponsored by the University of South Florida School of Information (part of the College of Arts and Sciences). The lecture is an annual recognition of a scholar or author whose achievements have been instrumental in the development of librarianship or information studies. The lecture series honors the memory of the School's first director, Alice Gullen Smith, known for her work with youth and bibliotherapy.^[1] The Lecture Fund was created with the purpose of memorializing the work of Smith, who was central to the School's first accreditation by the American Library Association in 1975.^[2] Florida Library Association archivist, Bernadette Storck has provided an oral history of the development of libraries in Tampa, Florida that details the contributions of Smith including her establishment of the Tampa Book Fair that encouraged thousands of children to foster a love for books and reading^[3]

The lecture is usually presented at the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida, School of Information. However, the 2010 lecture was held at the Florida Atlantic University Library in Boca Raton; the 25th anniversary lecture was held at the annual conference of the Florida Library Association on May 7, 2014 in Orlando, Florida; and the 30th lecture at the Robert W. Saunders Sr. Public Library a branch of the Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System in historic Ybor City. The Tampa Bay Library Consortium was a community partner for the 2019 lecture. The 31st lecture, given by James E. Andrews, was presented at the USFSI Sail Initiative, an interdisciplinary space for the study of information creation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.