![CFB at 25](images/cfb_1.jpg)
The Center for the Book will be 25 years old in October 2002. This is the first in an occasional series of articles that will summarize its activities during its first quarter century.
Since it was established in 1977, the Center for the Book has sponsored or cosponsored the publication of 52 books and 49 pamphlets. Many are still available, either from the Library of Congress Sales Shop or from a commercial publisher, but 22 are now out of print. For information about the availability of individual items, consult the Center for the Book's Web site: www.loc.gov/cfbook. The Center for the Book's publications are supported primarily by tax-deductible contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations.
Television, the Book, and the Classroom (1978) was the Center for the Book's first publication; historian Barbara Tuchman's lecture, The Book (1980), was the first pamphlet in the center's "Viewpoint" series; Library: The Drama Within (1996) was copublished with the University of New Mexico Press; Developing Lifetime Readers (1993) and Books Change Lives (1996) describe what happened across the country during these two Center for the Book national reading promotion campaigns.
Television, the Book and the Classroom (1978) was the Center for the Book's first publication; its most recent is Library History Research in America (2000), published in cooperation with the University of Texas Press and one of its journals, Libraries & Culture. New publications planned for 2001-2003 include a major bibliography and history of the Rivers of America book series, to be published in association with Oak Knoll Press; an introduction and resource volume for the study of print culture in America, published in association with the University of Massachusetts Press and the American Antiquarian Society; a publication honoring Librarian of Congress Emeritus Daniel J. Boorstin; and a one-volume historical "encyclopedia" of the Library of Congress, a reference book that will provide brief descriptions of the Library's major collections, functions and organizational units and biographical information about many of its staff members.
The Center for the Book's publications include books based on scholarly conferences at the Library of Congress and reading promotion handbooks, descriptions and studies. The conference proceedings pictured on this page resulted from symposia cosponsored by the center, the School of Library Service at Columbia University and the following Library of Congress divisions and sections: the European Division, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, the Geography and Map Division and the Near East Section. The books were produced by three publishers: Greenwood Press, the Library of Congress and the State University of New York Press. The Adventures of Cap'n O.G. Readmore (Scholastic, 1984) describes a television character developed by the center and ABC Entertainment.
The Center for the Book's mission is to stimulate public interest in books, reading and libraries. Its publishing program is an important means of achieving this goal.