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Books & Related Info for
(October 1, 2010- September 30, 2011)
Center for the Book Fiscal 2011 Annual Report
The Center for the Book in fiscal 2011 continued its reading and literacy outreach programs for readers of all ages and, in several cases, exceeded its performance levels of fiscal 2010. The Center’s popular author series continued to draw large numbers of attendees and the Young Readers Center, which the Center for the Book has administered since its opening in October 2009, shattered last year’s usage figures substantially.
As it has since its founding through Public Law 95-129 in 1977, the center relies on private funding to support all its activities; only its five staff positions are paid through appropriated funds.
Young Readers Center
In its first full year of operation, the Young Readers Center (YRC) attracted more than 29,000 visitors, including families and school groups. (last year’s total was 15,000 visitors.) The YRC is increasingly seen by families as a major reason for visiting the Library of Congress. The YRC works closely with the Visitor Services Office in coordinating visits, especially by school groups. The YRC also works with the Interpretive Programs Office and the Center’s reading promotion partners in developing many of its educational programs.
Major programs of the YRC in fiscal 2011 included:
- Kids Euro Festival: The YRC partnered with the Embassy of Spain for the third annual Kids Euro Festival.
- Africa Access: The YRC hosted the winners of the 2010 Africa Access Children’s Africana Book Awards for two programs in November 2010.
- Reading Is Fundamental: The YRC hosted a RIF event to celebrate African American History month.
- House of Representatives Enrichment Camp: The YRC hosted three sessions for the camp. Approximately thirty-five students ranging in age from 5 through 12 attended the sessions.
- LOC Box program: The YRC hosted the LOC Box program, which is run by the Visitor Services Office. More than 1,100 students participated in this program.
- Preservation Week: The YRC hosted its second annual Preservation Week program. The Preservation Directorate provided the presentation.
- YRC weekly story time: This programming is offered on Friday mornings.
The YRC collection has grown to about 2,000 titles. Items continue to come from donations from publishers, authors, generous individuals, and material selected from the Library’s Surplus program.
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature
The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature program, which the Center co-sponsors with its partner the Children’s Book Council, is nearing the end of the two-year term for its second ambassador, world-renowned Katherine Paterson. Paterson has traveled the country with her message “Read for Your Life!” and has been a featured presenter in both the 2010 and 2011 National Book Festivals. She also took part in a Letters About Literature program during the 2010 National Book Festival.
The new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Walter Dean Meyers, will take up the position on Jan. 10, 2012.
The National Ambassador is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and ability to relate to children. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.
The Center for the Book, the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and Every Child a Reader ( the CBC foundation), are the sponsors of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature initiative (www.read.gov/cfb/ambassador). The CBC is one of the Center for the Book’s more than 80 reading promotion partners. Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided by Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children’s Books, Random House Children’s Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan Publishers, Holiday House, Charlesbridge, National Geographic Children’s Books, Candlewick Press and Marshall Cavendish Publishers.
Katherine Paterson’s international fame rests not only on her widely acclaimed novels but also on her efforts to promote literacy in the United States and abroad. A two-time winner of the Newbery Medal (“Bridge to Terabithia” and “Jacob Have I Loved”) and the National Book Award (“The Great Gilly Hopkins” and “The Master Puppeteer”), she has received many other accolades for her body of work, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, given by her home state of Vermont. Paterson was also named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress in 2000.
“The Exquisite Corpse Adventure”
“The Exquisite Corpse Adventure” was a serialized story written exclusively for the Center for the Book’s Read.gov website by many of the nation’s best authors and illustrators for young people. The project was a collaborative effort with Center for the Book partner the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. The story ran for 27 biweekly episodes online and concluded in September 2010. The success of this project is supported by the fact that Candlewick Press, one of the nation’s largest publishers of books for young people, published “The Exquisite Corpse Adventure” in book form in August 2011. This was celebrated during a special presentation with several of the book’s authors and illustrators at the 2011 National Book Festival.
Letters About Literature
For the second consecutive year, the Letters About Literature reading-writing program received more than 70,000 entries from students in grades 4-12. This contest, sponsored by Target, asks students to write a letter to an author (living or dead) whose work changed their lives. Six National and 12 National Honor winners are recognized each year with grants to the students’ school libraries and gift cards to the students. As a show of support and to emphasize the importance of this program, a Center for the Book representative attended the award ceremonies for each of the six National award winners.
The 2011 contest (with winners announced in spring 2012) will be the last one that Target funds. The Center for the Book is working with the Development Office to secure a new sponsor.
River of Words
The Center for the Book also co-sponsors River of Words, an environmental poetry and art contest for students ages 5 through 19. The Center has co-sponsored this program since its inception in 1995. During 2011, the program was on hiatus, as a new funding sponsor was secured. The program has found a new home at St. Mary’s College Center for Environmental Literacy in Moraga, Calif. (east of San Francisco).
In May 2011, the Center co-sponsored with River of Words a special concert featuring River of Words poems set to music by young composers under the mentorship of renowned composer Libby Larsen as part of the Youth Inspiring Youth program. Larsen is a former fellow of the Library’s Kluge Center. The songs were performed at St. Patrick’s Church with WomenSing from San Francisco and the Peabody Children’s Chorus. Youth Inspiring Youth is a four-year-old collaboration between River of Words and the award-winning California-based chorus WomenSing.
Read.gov Website
The Read.gov website, which also includes the Center for the Book website, continues to be one of the few sites on loc.gov that offers contemporary programming related to books and their authors. This is primarily through the webcasts of the Books & Beyond author series (and its complementary Facebook page). More than 160 Books & beyond webcasts are currently available.
Read.gov, comprises four subsites tailored to Kids, Teens, Adults, and Educators & Parents. The major upgrade to the site in fiscal 2011 was the inclusion of many more digitized public-domain works. These books are presented in a page-turning format that emulates the experience of reading a physical book.
National Book Festival
- As it has done since 2001, the Center for the Book played a major role in presentation of the 2011 National book Festival, including:
- Inviting and scheduling all authors and illustrators, this year for a two-day festival of more than 110 presenters, including all arrangements for National Book Festival Creative Award winner Toni Morrison
- Drafting of almost all text and oversight of NBF website
- Drafting of almost all text and oversight of NBF brochure
- Organization of Pavilion of the States – the NBF’s most popular pavilion
- Overall planning of the festival
- From July 1 through the end of September, Center for the Book staff members spent either the vast majority or a substantial portion of their time carrying out National Book Festival responsibilities.
Center for the Book Newsletter
The Center continued to publish its electronic newsletter on a quarterly basis. It has become the primary tool for communicating with the Center’s partners and affiliated Centers for the Book, in addition to the annual Partners Meeting and State Centers Meeting.
Reading Promotion Partners/State Centers for the Book
The annual “idea exchange” for national reading promotion partners took place on March 17. More than 45 organizations participated. Representatives of 35 states participated in the May 9 annual “idea exchange” for affiliated State Centers for the Book. Every three years, a State Center must apply to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress to renew its status.
Renewal applications from 13 states were received in fiscal 2011; all were approved. The states are: Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Festschrift for John Y. Cole
“The Library of Congress and the Center for the Book: Historical Essays Honoring John Y. Cole,” was published by the Library of Congress and the University of Texas Press at Austin. Edited by Mary Niles Maack of the University of California at Los Angeles, the volume features nine invitational essays marking Cole’s dual achievements as a scholar who is “known internationally as the foremost expert on the history of the Library of Congress” and as the founding director, in 1977, of the Center for the Book.
The essays were originally published as a special issue (2010, vol. 45, no. 1) of the University of Texas quarterly journal “Libraries & the Cultural Record: Exploring the History of Collections of Recorded Knowledge,” also edited by Maack. This clothbound edition includes a new, illustrated essay by Cole (“A Life at the Library of Congress”), an updated bibliography of his writings 1970-2010 and a comprehensive index.
Books & Beyond Author Series
The popular author series Books & Beyond continued as strong as ever during fiscal 2011. These book discussions and signings feature authors whose published works are based on research performed in the Library of Congress’ collections. In fiscal 2011, the Center presented 26 programs either as the sole sponsor or as a co-sponsor. The Center also forged a new relationship with the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden to present book discussions of art-related works.
Awards Presentations
National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest
The Center hosted its first awards ceremony for the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest in conjunction with the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, with major support from the Jay I. Kislak Foundation. Established in 2005 by Fine Books & Collections magazine to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students, the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. The magazine conducted the annual competition program before turning over leadership to the new collaboration of institutional partners.
Americas Award
The Center for the Book co-sponsored with the Hispanic Division the Americas Award of the Consortium of Latin American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The award recognizes outstanding U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore or selected nonfiction published in the previous year. The work must “authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean or Latinos in the United States.”
