The Center for the Book will be 25 years old in October 2002. This is the seventh in a series of articles that summarizes its activities during its first quarter century.
The Center for the Book promotes reading through its affiliated state center network and its reading promotion partnership program. More than 90 civic, educational and professional organizations are part of the partnership program, which includes both national and international groups. For a list of participating organizations and information about their activities, see the center's Web site, www.loc.gov/cfbook.
The reading and literacy promotion activities of the center's organizational partners vary in accordance with each group's overall purpose, but each has developed a cooperative relationship with the Center for the Book and its program of reading promotion themes and projects. Each partner is invited to the Library of Congress once a year for a reading promotion partners' "Idea Exchange Day," where good ideas for promoting books, reading, literacy and libraries are shared, new projects are introduced, and new partnerships are formed. Forty-five organizations participated in this year's meeting, which was held at the Library on March 18. Many of the partners also present their projects and distribute literature in the "Great Ideas for Promoting Reading" pavilion at the National Book Festival.
Three Center for the Book projects in the 1980s moved the center towards a partnership program. Each resulted in a publication: "U.S. International Book Programs 1981" (1982), which described the programs of 31 U.S. government and international agencies; "Reading and Successful Living: The Family-School Partnership" (1983), based on a 1981 symposium at the Library; and "The Community of the Book: A Directory of Selected Organizations and Programs" (1986), which outlined the programs of 89 private-sector and government organizations.
The partnership program formally started in 1987 when the center launched "The Year of the Reader," its first national reading promotion campaign. Momentum grew through the 1989 "Year of the Young Reader" and 1991 "Year of the Lifetime Reader" campaigns; more than 80 organizations promoted the "Lifetime Reader" theme. By the end of the 1992 "Explore New Worlds–READ" campaign, more than 100 organizations had become reading promotion partners. The enthusiasm and skill of Michael Thompson, a Center for the Book consultant from 1989-1995, put the partnership program on a firm footing for the future. In the mid-1990s, many literacy organizations joined the program for the first time.
Reading Promotion Partnership Highlights (1987 to date)
1987. The Center for the Book begins enlisting organizational partners to support the "Year of the Reader," its first national reading promotion campaign. The center produces "The Reader," by New York artist Will Barnet, its first reading promotion poster.
Nov. 15-16, 1989. Plans for future partnerships are formulated at the conference "Learning Opportunities for Children: Libraries and Their Partners," the final Library of Congress event of the "Year of the Young Reader" campaign. The conference, cosponsored with the Association for Library Service for Children, begins with a White House reception hosted by first lady Barbara Bush, honorary chair of the "Year of the Young Reader."
April 1, 1991. At the White House Easter Egg Roll, Center for the Book staff members pass out more than 6,000 "I'm Going to Be a Lifetime Reader" lapel stickers.
1993. The center publishes "Developing Lifetime Readers: A Report on a National Reading Promotion Campaign."
Jan. 19, 1994. The center hosts its first annual "Idea Exchange Day" for partners focusing on ideas to promote "Books Change Lives," the national reading promotion theme for 1993-1994. Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole announces that the number of partners has increased to 128, an all-time high.
1996. The center publishes "Books Change Lives: A Report on a National Reading Promotion Campaign."
March 20-21, 1997. Tara Holland, Miss America 1997, launches the center's "Building A Nation of Readers" national reading promotion campaign.
Sept. 8, 2000. With support from organizational partners interested in promoting literacy and reading internationally, the Center for the Book hosts the U.S. commemoration of International Literacy Day. This successful cooperative effort leads to the creation of the International Literacy Network; the center is a founding partner.
Sept. 8, 2001. Sixty of the Center for the Book's organizational partners promote their projects in the "Great Ideas for Promoting Reading" pavilion at the first National Book Festival, hosted by first lady Laura Bush and sponsored by the Library of Congress.