September 30, 1997

Contact:
Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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Maine Center for the Book Approved

The Library of Congress has approved an application from the Maine Humanities Council to become the home of the Maine Center for the Book. "We are very happy to welcome Maine, a state with a rich literary heritage, to our growing network of affiliated state centers," said John Y. Cole, Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

The Maine Center for the Book will be one of four divisions of the Maine Humanities Council. The new statewide center will provide leadership in connecting appropriate state organizations in several activities, including: promoting reading as an essential lifelong activity; celebrating Maine's rich literary traditions, past and present; and drawing together members of the state's community of readers and writers who treasure books and the ideas within them.

"We are delighted with this opportunity to increase state awareness about the central role of reading in our lives," said Dorothy Schwartz, Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council. "Our first priority as the Main Center for the Book is to intensify our services to those who are non-readers or infrequent readers through our new family literacy programming."

For information about the Maine Center for the Book, contact Dorothy Schwartz, Executive Director, Maine Humanities Council, P.O. Box 7202, Portland, ME 04112; phone (207) 773-5051 or fax (207) 773-2416.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, libraries and literacy. Its projects, supported mostly by private funds, reaches into every region of the country through a network of more than 30 affiliated state centers and 50 national, educational, and civic organizations. For information, visit the center's web site at: http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/.

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PR 97-160
9/30/97
ISSN 0731-3527