Charles Willett 1932-2012

I want to acknowledge the passing of longtime librarian/activist Charles M. Willett. Charles founded the Civic Media Center in Gainesville, Florida and Counterpoise (alternative library review journal) & Librarians at Liberty magazines. Once a collection development librarian, one of Charles's great passions was getting alternative press publications into libraries. I forget the exact (contentious) history*, but Charles was also involved in the Alternatives in Print [now Alternative Media] task force of SRRT/ALA. There's a lot more that could be said about Charles and his accomplishments. Here is how The Gainesville Sun put it:

Charles's work lives on in the Civic Media Center and in the lives of the dozens? of undergrads he influenced supervising their work on Counterpoise. I'd love to know how many of them went on to become librarians.

*Charles had difficulties with many of the same people in SRRT who I found to be less than optimal collaborators. I'm not saying who was right, if anyone, since I wasn't involved then.

Goodbye Charles, and thank you for your work!