The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature. Begun in the 1970s to generate interest in children's literature as an academic discipline and to provide a place for those studying children's literature to share ideas, the association sponsors an annual conference, two scholarly journals, and a series of awards. The association has also published a series of essays, Touchstones, attempting to establish a canon of children's literature. History In order to stimulate an interest in children's literature among humanities scholars, ChLA was formed in 1972 by Anne Devereaux Jordan, then teaching at Western Michigan University, and her colleague, Jon Stott. Later that year, Devereaux contacted Francelia Butler of the University of Connecticut, who had founded the journal Children's Literature in 1971, inviting her to combine her efforts with theirs. Butler, Jordan, and Stott all felt the need to bring scholars who were interested in children's literature together to "help raise the status of children's literature." As Butler wrote in The New York Times in 1973, "To many humanists...in languages, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, or history, the most embarrassing literature to study is not about autoeroticism or cunnilingus. On such works scholars pride themselves on their broadmindedness. What truly embarrasses them is literature for their own children—'kiddy lit,' they call it." On 20 August 1973, Jordan, Stott, Butler, Bennet Brockman, Glenn Sadler, and John Graham had a meeting to formally found the association, and unite the association and the journal (final board member, Rodney Morissett was unable to attend). As a result, the Children's Literature Association had its first conference the following March. The Board of Directors approved a constitution at this conference. Initially, the organization numbered 200; membership doubled the following year. Jordan served as the Executive Secretary and conference organizer of the organization until spring of 1976. The association's work quickly began to raise the profile of children's literature as its representatives were invited to speak at major events on education and children's literature. Marilyn Fain Apseloff became the organization's second president, succeeding Stott in 1979. That year, Apseloff represented ChLA at the First White House Conference on Library and Information Sciences where she spoke on the importance of literature for children. Her speech read, in part: “Libraries are crucial to meet our goals, to meet what should be