In 1997, the Center for the Book marked its 20th anniversary of promoting books, reading and libraries (see the LC Information Bulletin, December 1997).
The international side of the center's activities has focused on projects developed in cooperation with UNESCO, the U.S. publishing community, the U.S. Information Agency or other U.S. government agencies and Library of Congress area studies divisions.
Early Center for the Book projects resulted in several publications, including: The International Flow of Information: A Trans-Pacific Perspective (1981); U.S. International Book Programs 1981 (1982); U.S. Books Abroad: Neglected Ambassadors, by Curtis G. Benjamin (1984); and, with the Library's Asian Division, Multiple Meanings: The Written Word in Japan (1986). In 1987, the International Book Committee, an advisory committee to UNESCO, presented the Center for the Book with its International Book Award, in recognition of the center's "imaginative and practical campaigns on behalf of books and reading."
Other Center for the Book projects have included conferences on: "The Book in the Islamic World," cosponsored with the Library's Near East Section (Nov. 8-9, 1990); "The National Library in the Life of the Nation: The Lenin State Library and the Library of Congress" (Moscow, Oct. 29-31, 1991); the future of the U. S. Information Agency's book and library programs (Feb. 11, 1993); "Publishing and Book Culture in Russia and the New States (March 9-10, 1993); and "Libraries and Reading in Times of Cultural Change" (Vologda, Russia, June 18-22, 1996).
Current international Center for the Book activities include participation in international book fairs and conferences; cooperation with book centers and literacy organizations in other countries; support for U.S. celebrations of World Book Day (April 23) and International Literacy Day (Sept. 8), encouragement of the development of centers for the book in other countries; and involvement in book, reading and library promotion projects supported by UNESCO and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
International "Reading for All" Panel Meets in Egypt
Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole represented IFLA on Nov. 24-25, 1997, in Aswan, Egypt, at the first meeting of the UNESCO-sponsored International Panel on the Reading for All Program. Chaired by Suzanne Mubarak, first lady of Egypt, the panel was established "to advise on the preparation and implementation" of a new international program inspired by the successful Egyptian "Reading for All" project initiated by Mrs. Mubarak in 1991. The program promotes the reading habit among children, primarily through the strengthening of public libraries and distribution of inexpensive reading materials in underprivileged rural and urban communities. In March 1997, UNESCO Egyptian authorities agreed to allow UNESCO members to benefit from the Egyptian experience through UNESCO-coordinated national and regional initiatives.
Following opening addresses by Mrs. Mubarak and UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor, panel members heard presentations about the Egyptian program. Panelists made individual presentations on the second day, focusing on reading promotion programs carried out in their respective countries. The other nations represented on the panel were Brazil, Bulgaria, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago.
In its recommendations to UNESCO, the panel expressed its approval of this UNESCO initiative, its appreciation of the Egyptian "Reading for All" program and its agreement to share its findings "with their national institutions and authorities, as well as with other organizations involved in the promotion of reading," and to report back with the reactions at its next meeting. In addition to recommending that "governments and nongovernmental organizations consider the possibilities of applying the experiences of the Egyptian Reading for All program," the panel recommended that governments and nongovernment agencies "evaluate their past and present national reading promotion activities with the aim of carrying out an assessment of needs in this field."
IFLA Section on Reading
Center for the Book Director John Cole was elected chairman of the IFLA Section on Reading at its meeting on Aug. 30, 1997, in Copenhagen, Denmark, during IFLA's 63rd general conference. Adele M. Fasick, former dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, was elected secretary-treasurer. Formerly the Round Table on Research on Reading, the new Section on Reading was established in 1997.
Its goals are: 1) to assume a leadership role in outlining strategies for international campaigns that support reading development; 2) to monitor the dissemination of knowledge about reading, readers and library patrons; 3) to promote the understanding of reading patterns and literacy problems among librarians and other cultural agents; 4) to explore various ways of promoting reading and literacy in specific cultural milieus; 5) to carry out research on the problems of literacy and reading; and 6) to emphasize the role of reading in children's development and to outline various methods that have been used in different countries.
The Section on Reading is cosponsoring, with the IFLA Round Table on Library History and other organizations, a two-day conference in Paris on June 11-12 that will examine the effect of the post-World War II "Cold War" on libraries, reading and publishing. The conference will be hosted by the French National Library School. For further information, contact conference coordinator Martine Poulain, 27 rue Bezout, 74014 Paris, France, fax 33-1-40-64-1089.
"Book and Reading Promotion in the Low Countries" is the Section on Reading's program at the 1998 IFLA conference in Amsterdam, Aug. 16-21. The program highlights books and reading promotion in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, with special attention to several successful public and private partnerships in the Netherlands. Speakers will include representatives from Stichting Lezen (the Dutch Reading Foundation), Stichting CPNB (Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book) and the Stichting Schrijvers School Samenleving (Foundation of Writers, School, Society).
Also during the Amsterdam conference, in cooperation with the IFLA Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations, the Section on Reading will sponsor a workshop on "Literacy and Reading Services to Cultural and Linguistic Minorities." The workshop will bring together experts from several countries and regions to explore the kinds of programs under way that encourage literacy and promote reading among children and newly literate adults. Papers will deal with issues such as the factors that constitute a successful reading promotion program; the publication of materials in indigenous languages; the transition from mother-tongue reading to majority-language texts; and the feasibility of publishing multilanguage editions of reading materials. The objective is to produce guidelines for planning successful literacy and reading promotion projects.
Booklet on International Librarianship Available
Copies of International Library Horizons: Some Personal Observations by Robert Vosper, a 25-page booklet published by the Library of Congress in 1989, are available from the Center for the Book. One of the outstanding library leaders in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s, Mr. Vosper was a key participant in international-library activities, including those of IFLA. The booklet, sponsored by the Center for the Book, contains his recollections and observations on topics such as post-World War II library acquisitions from Europe, the Farmington Plan, the international activities of the American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries, U.S. involvement in IFLA and many of the IFLA general conferences in the 1960s and 1970s. Single copies of the booklet are available without charge upon written request to the Center for the Book, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4920.