Distinguished Benefactor
Target
Target is committed to actively supporting education and recognizes the integral role reading plays in shaping a child's future. Because reading is the foundation for lifelong learning, Target supports childhood reading through a number of initiatives including sponsorship of the Library of Congress Letters About Literature national writing contest; support for book festivals across the country, including serving as a Distinguished Benefactor for the National Book Festival; partnership with the national non-profit organization Reach Out and Read; and support of United Through Reading, which helps military families stay connected during deployment through a read-aloud-by-DVD program. Since opening its doors, Target has given five percent of its income to organizations that support education, the arts, social services and volunteerism. Today that translates to $3 million every week. For more information, visit Target.com/community.
Charter Sponsors
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. In 2008, AT&T again ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list and No. 1 on America's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list.
AT&T Inc. is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. Through its philanthropic initiatives and partnerships, AT&T supports projects that create learning opportunities; promote academic and economic achievement; and address community needs. In 2007, AT&T contributed more than $164 million through corporate-, employee- and AT&T Foundation-giving programs. AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, the corporate philanthropy organization of AT&T, combine more than $1.9 billion of historic charitable commitment to communities across the country. Additional information on the AT&T Foundation is available at http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=7736.
The Washington Post
Each year, The Washington Post, through its community outreach programs, demonstrates its commitment to the Washington metropolitan area. As an active involved corporate citizen, The Post partners with a host of organizations that strive to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. These partnerships help to educate area children, provide basic health and human service needs, uplift spirits and spur creativity and imagination. The Post community outreach efforts focus on many segments of the region; however, supporting literacy and education is the cornerstone of our community relations initiatives. That is why we are proud to be a Charter Sponsor of the Eighth Annual National Book Festival. www.washpost.com/community
The Washington Post also hosts online chats leading up to the
festival with participating authors. These chats are available at
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/books/features/2008/n
ational-book-festival/
Patrons
Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.
The James Madison Council
The James Madison Council is a private-sector group created to serve as the Library of Congress' primary link to the business community. The first private-sector advisory body in the Library's history, the Council consists of public-spirited citizens determined to help the nation receive the full benefits of the Library's incomparable educational, scientific, technological and cultural resources.
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) sponsors the National Book Festival Poetry Pavilion. NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts-both new and established-bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.
Contributors
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest bookseller, has more than 820 stores in 50 states under the Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton names. The company is a 2008 National Book Festival Contributor. Thanks to the support of Barnes & Noble, this year's festival will house one book sales tent loaded with the most recent works for each festival author. Be sure to stop by before heading over to the book signing area.
Kalima: Reviving Translation in the Arab World
Kalima – “word” in Arabic – is an ambitious, non-profit initiative seeded by a grant from the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With a mission to revive translation in the Arab world, Kalima funds the translation, publication and distribution of high-quality works of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic. Kalima plans to select 100 candidate titles for translation and publication each year.
Throughout Europe’s “Dark Ages” and until the end of the first millennium, Arab cultures led the world in translating, producing and preserving knowledge in science, medicine, philosophy and the arts. Since then however, very few foreign works have found their way into Arabic. There is much debate about the scale of the problem. However according to the United Nations Development Programme, Spain translates in one year the same number of books that have been translated into Arabic in the last thousand years; and Greece, with a population of 11 million, translates five times more books each year than the Arab world which has a population of over 300 million.
Currently in most Arabic countries, “great works” of world literature or academia are only available in the original language, restricting access to these books to a select group of society. Arabic is also a beautiful, expressive language, and one that should be valued more by giving readers a greater choice of quality titles in translation.
Each year’s selection consists of a diverse mix of literature, academic texts, and business books, taking into account the current gaps that exist, and the types of titles that will appeal to readers. In the first year, authors ranged from George Eliot, Khaled Hosseini and Albert Camus to Albert Einstein, Umberto Eco and Stephen Hawking.
Please visit www.kalima.ae/eng.php to learn more about Kalima's work to revive translation in the Arab World.
Library of Congress Federal Credit Union
The Library of Congress Federal Credit Union (LCFCU) is a member-owned financial services cooperative. For more than 70 years, LCFCU has sustained "people-helping-people" values while developing a broad range of services for its members.
In the 21st century, LCFCU has deepened its commitment beyond providing efficient
and economical financial services. The organization advocates the need for
"family financial literacy." To support its wide range of money management services,
it offers members many financial literacy tools. These include access to a free
financial fitness program; free member education seminars; community activities;
and online tutorials and age-appropriate educational resources for every family member.
Home and Family Finance is both a quarterly print magazine and an online resource center. This online information center and Anytime Adviser, a suite of seven online financial tutorials for adults, are offered in both English and Spanish. Googolplex is an
interactive online site with quarterly age-appropriate print newsletters. Both are
rich resources for primary through high school-age students. Guides to Independence
are our online courses for teens with incentives for course completions. MoneyMix is
an online information source for young adults; and PlanIT is a retirement-planning
tool online for men and women age 40 and above.
LCFCU membership is open to Library of Congress employees, retirees and contractors.
Within the District of Columbia all residents, employees, students, worshippers,
businesses and other legal entities may join and enjoy lifetime financial benefits.
Family members of all of the above groups also are eligible to belong and take advantage of every financial benefit—-including this wide range of "family financial literacy" tools.
Marshall and Dee Ann Payne
NBA/WNBA
The NBA family encourages kids to read and adults to love reading with children. Through NBA Cares, the league’s social responsibility initiative that builds on the NBA’s long tradition of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world, a wide array of educational and reading programs are supported. Current and former NBA and WNBA players participate in read-alouds and other shared reading and online activities at schools, community-based organizations, at its Read & Learning Centers, in arenas, and wherever else it is possible to read! For more information on the NBA’s latest community outreach efforts, and how you can get involved, please visit www.nba.com/cares.
PBS
Providing age-appropriate and diverse programming, PBS is home to the highest quality commercial-free content and multimedia learning environment for children, parents and teachers. In addition to educational television programming, PBS offers an array of resources including PBS Teachers (www.pbs.org/teachers), PBS KIDS (www.pbskids.org) for preschoolers, PBS KIDS GO! (www.pbskidsgo.org) for early grade-schoolers, PBS Parents(www.pbsparents.org) and Ready To Learn services (www.pbs.org/readytolearn) funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Only PBS has earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children, industry leaders and teachers. PBS is a nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 355 public television stations, serving over 75 million people each week and reaching 99% of American homes.
Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
Scholastic Inc.
For more than 87 years, Scholastic has recognized the importance of working with public, private and non-profit organizations that share its mission and goals to improve the well being of children. Scholastic's total commitment to social responsibility and educational outreach is demonstrated by its diverse partnerships, which address today's most critical issues facing communities, with an emphasis on reading and literacy. For more information visit www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/community.
Scholastic social investment initiatives include:
- Scholastic Book Grants Program—a corporate in-kind giving initiative that provides high-quality reading materials to children in need.
- Lee y serás® (Read and You Will Be) and Read and Rise®—two initiatives that empower and engage families and communities to foster children’s literacy development.
- Words Travel—the first national literacy and family strengthening program for incarcerated parents and their children. The mission of the program is to connect incarcerated parents with their children through reading books.
- Scholastic My Time, A Box for Comfort and Fun™—a “comfort kit” for children affected by disasters or crisis situations. Based on principles from the fields of child development and mental health, the kit features tools that can be used to help children handle stress and anxiety, including three age-appropriate books; a children’s magazine; a "make your own" book that allows children to express their feelings through writing and drawing; a pack of colored pencils; and information to support parents’ and family members’ efforts to help children cope with difficult circumstances. Scholastic My Time was created as a component of the company’s Rebuilding for Learning initiative, a long-term recovery effort aimed at supporting the restoration of the learning infrastructure in Gulf Coast communities. The initiative works to provide educational leaders, educators and families with comprehensive recovery resources.
US Airways
US Airways and its employees are committed to supporting community organizations and initiatives to enhance the quality of life in the airline’s hub markets and focus cities. US Airways believes by being a good corporate citizen it can contribute to the economic and social well being of its employees, shareholders and passengers. US Airways recognizes that true community stewardship must be reflected both internally through a supportive and dedicated employee base and externally with strong partnerships with nonprofit organizations that strive to meet critical needs. Its approach is hands on and collaborative and it seeks to form relationships that combine financial and in-kind resources with human resources in the areas of health and human services, arts and culture and education and environment.
In March of 2008, US Airways launched a new national nonprofit partnership – the first of its kind by an airline - with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. Through this early childhood literacy campaign, US Airways placed 300,000 free children’s books in the seatback pocket on domestic flights, launched an online Read with Kids Challenge, and supported RIF programs through financial donations and employee volunteerism in the airline’s hub and focus cities. For more information on US Airways Community Relations, visit www.usairways.com/corporategiving.
Friends
Marshall B. Coyne Foundation, Inc.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities serves and strengthens the United States by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans through grants supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. NEH is supporting the 2008 National Book Festival by funding participation in the Pavilion of the States by a number of humanities-based state centers for the book. For information on NEH, visit www.neh.gov.
A Note of Thanks
C-SPAN2: Book TV
All weekend, every weekend, join Book TV for the latest nonfiction books and authors in biography, history, current events, the media and more. Book TV brings book festivals, author discussions, readings, panels and book events from across the country to its viewers. Book TV will once again televise events taking place at the National Book Festival. For information about Book TV on C-SPAN2, visit www.booktv.org.
Junior League of Washington (JLW)
For the sixth consecutive year, the Junior League of Washington will play a major role at the National Book Festival by providing 400 member volunteers to staff the event.
In 1999, the Junior League of Washington established literacy as its focus area and stated "The Junior League of Washington will strive to lead, coordinate, and support programs in the metropolitan Washington, DC area that enhance the literacy skills in the community." Supporting the National Book Festival is a natural extension of the Junior League of Washington's focus on literacy. This year, Junior League of Washington members will volunteer more than 50,000 hours of service in the community towards addressing children, adult and cultural literacy needs.
Throughout its 97-year history, the Junior League of Washington has raised more than $4.6 million for community programs and has been a vibrant force in the lives of women and children in the national capital area. In May 2008, JLW awarded more than $68,000 in grant funding to literacy-focused programs, contests, and scholarship opportunities.
In addition to awarding grants, the Junior League of Washington, through its "Books for Bright Futures" program, fosters literacy by donating over 1,000 books annually to community organizations. Last year, the Junior League of Washington refurbished the library at Charles Hart Middle School and donated 2,000 new age-appropriate books. The JLW also has a partnership with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, a branch of the D.C. Public Library through which it supports various projects the library offers to encourage reading among the District's children.
The Junior League of Washington, a nonprofit organization with more than 2,200 members, is committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. For information on JLW, visit www.jlw.org.