Obituary: Alec Williams
Alec Williams 19 November 1947 – 2 June 2026
By Steve Hird.
I first met Alec Williams in 1982 at a training day organised by the Yorkshire and Humberside branch of the Youth Libraries Group of the Library Association (the forerunner of CILIP). The theme was library activities for children and Alec was a speaker and demonstrator. I had recently moved within the library profession into the field of children’s and schools’ library work. Alec was already by the 1980’s well known and respected in this field – I was there to learn.
This was for me the start of a close working collaboration and, just as importantly, the beginnings of what was to become a close friendship too. In the world of work, Alec was instrumental in developing a growing network of senior professionals in children’s and schools’ librarianship across Yorkshire and Humberside in the mid 1980’s. We grandly called ourselves Yorkshire Libraries for Children. In the days when you could still do these things, we began to hold training days and encouraged our staff to go. We shared ideas and good practice, we economised on costs by collectively booking authors and entertainers, and we produced handy practical guides to, for example, simplified Dewey, and lists and contact details of recommended authors, speakers and entertainers, based on our collective experiences.
Sometime in the early 1990’s four of us, including Alec, cooked up the idea of a networking group for heads of children’s and schools’ library services across all metropolitan districts in England. And so was born AMDECL, The Association of Metropolitan District Education and Children’s Librarians. Soon we were organising weekend conferences with notable speakers, and working with organisations in the fields of literacy, reading for pleasure, curriculum development, and so forth, hoping that our collective voice might be heard in influential circles.
It was not long, again with Alec in the vanguard, before we began to realise that any influence we might be able to make could only be enhanced by becoming truly national, and after meetings with representatives of SOCCEL and YELL, (great acronyms by the way!), the county council and London borough equivalents of AMDECL, their members voted overwhelmingly in favour of us all merging, and in 1995 ASCEL, the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians, was established. Alec and I sat on its committee from the outset, working with committed and expert colleagues from across the country. Our work and ASCEL’s reputation continued to grow, and eventually new committee members took on the role. ASCEL is now a registered charity rebranded as Libraries Rising, and goes from strength to strength, just one of Alec’s many legacies.
In 2003 Alec joined the Executive Committee of the School Library Association and soon became its Chair. It was during his chairmanship that the late Aidan Chambers became President of the SLA and had his Big Idea – the School Librarian of the Year Award, which is still going strong in its 21st year. Alec was one of its original judging panel members.
By this time Alec had left local authority public library service and become a freelance speaker, trainer and storyteller. His flair for telling children’s stories and poetry to audiences from pre-school upwards ensured that he was much in demand in schools and libraries throughout the UK. He also began working for the British Council on library development projects in countries far and wide, often well off the beaten track, and quite rightly took great pride in this important role.
Alec was always up for starting something new. Super-organised as he was, he had kept contact details for numerous people from former times, and it was he who invited a small group of former AMDECL/ASCEL committee colleagues to a pub lunch high on the Pennines, with the idea that it might be good to meet up from time to time going forward. We readily agreed, and over time this small group grew a bit, and 15 years later we still meet two or three times a year, now with partners too, and visit somewhere interesting then have a lovely meal. We hardly ever talk about libraries!
Alec and I met socially from time to time for many years, relaxing in each others’ company and enjoying long walks in the Peak District and West and South Yorkshire. Particular memories include Alec offering to share a sandwich with a sheep on the summit of Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, and trying in vain to shelter from an almighty deluge, eating bananas, at Top Withens (aka Wuthering Heights).
In all that Alec did, his passion and enthusiasm shone through, along with his great wit and sense of humour. Always optimistic, he bore his last illness with positivity and stoicism. And to the end, he kept on suggesting things – it was his idea and wish that our enduring group of former AMDECL/ASCEL colleagues should all meet again, with our partners. And so we did. Just a few weeks before he died Alec and Charlotte met us all at RHS Bridgwater in Salford – it was a beautiful day, in every sense.
