The National and International Roles of the Center for the Book

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has called the Center for the Book "a remarkably effective national, and indeed international, catalyst for promoting books, reading, literacy and libraries and for encouraging scholarly research about the role of books and print culture in our society."¹ Over the course of more than thirty years the Center has played a pivotal national role in these distinct but complementary areas of activity and study. Today through its state center network the Center's influence reaches into every state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; moreover, the Center for the Book concept has spread to South Africa, Russia, and other nations around the world. Within the Library of Congress the Center is well known for its sponsorship of book talks, its key role in the National Book Festival, and its cooperative programs with other library offices as well as with other institutions in the United States and abroad.

Founding Principles

At the urging of Daniel J. Boorstin, the distinguished historian who served as the twelfth Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987, Congress established the Center for the Book in 1977 through Public Law 95-129. Boorstin's initiative was supported by the 1976 Task Force on Goals, Organization, and Planning, which the librarian set up soon after his appointment. Believing that such a body should be informed by an understanding of the history of the Library, Boorstin named as task force chair John Y. Cole, a seasoned staff member and scholar who had recently completed his doctoral dissertation about how Ainsworth Rand Spofford, the sixth Librarian of Congress (1864–97), had shaped the Library into an institution of national significance. Soon after the Center for the Book was established, Boorstin named Cole as its founding director.

Among its many recommendations, the task force urged the Library to play a more prominent educational role, particularly in enhancing appreciation of the book and the printed word. Therefore, it heartily endorsed Boorstin's proposed legislation to establish a program "for the investigation of the transmission of human knowledge and to heighten public interest in the role of books and printing in the diffusion of knowledge."² In October 1977, when Boorstin addressed the members of the newly created Center for the Book's National Advisory Board, he spelled out both the rationale for and the purpose of the Center: "You may wonder why the Library of Congress, which of all places, is a center for the book should now become a place for the establishing of the Center for the Book. It is to organize, focus and dramatize our nation's interest and attention on the book, to marshal the nation's support—spiritual, physical and fiscal—for the book."³

Although it was Boorstin's vision that led to the creation of the Center for the Book, it is through the leadership of its founding director, John Y. Cole, that the Center has grown from a modest organization into a nationwide network of literacy and reading advocates who share the Center's zeal for the importance of books, reading, and book culture. In addition to recruiting support from institutions and organizations within the broader community of the book, John Cole has obtained funding from a wide variety of corporate sponsors and individual donors. This is possible because the Center was established as a public-private partnership; the Library of Congress funds its four staff positions (whose number has remained constant for more than twenty years), but all of its activities, publications, and programs are supported by gifts, endowments, or other outside funds. Approximately $20 million has been donated to the Center since its founding. While much of that funding has been devoted to reading promotion activities, support from the private sector also has gone to underwrite scholarly symposia and publications.

Promoting Scholarship on Books, Reading, and Literacy

The statute that established the Center for the Book in 1977 specifically prescribes that the Center "shall stimulate … research in the role of the book in the diffusion of knowledge." Over the past thirty years the Center...