Celebrating a Decade of Words and Wonder; A Rolling Exhibition to the Heartland
If you missed or couldn't attend the National Book Festival this weekend on the National Mall in Washington, DC or hadn't watched it on C-Span2 (Booktv.org), there are sources for author's interviews, a kids and teacher's guide, and author's podcasts. Thousands of book lovers gathered to help celebrate the 10th anniversary, "A Decade of Words and Wonder." This event, organized and sponsored by the Library with honorary chairs President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama, sparked readers' imaginations, creativity and passion for learning when they interacted with the nation's best-selling authors, illustrators and poets.
Celebrated authors Isabel Allende, Laura Bush, Suzanne Collins, Ken Follett, Jonathan Franzen, Katherine Paterson, David Remnick, Stacy Schiff, Richard Rhodes and Anthony Shaffer — as well as celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Spike Mendelsohn — were among scores of writers, illustrators and poets presenting at the 2010 National Book Festival. See below for a full listing of participants.*
For those unable to attend in person, the Library of Congress has made it possible to participate in the festival online. The festival's multimedia website offers the following, among other features:- Downloadable author podcasts
- Webcasts of author presentations
- Kids and Teachers Guide to the Festival
- "Vote for your Favorite Festival Author" poll
Library of Congress Takes to the Road, Brings Rolling Exhibition to the Heartland
The Library of Congress will launch a new traveling exhibition late in September that will bring facsimiles of many of its top treasures and information about the millions of resources in its unparalleled collections to the heartland of America. "Gateway to Knowledge," an exhibition that will travel in a specially fitted-out 18-wheel truck, will launch from the site of the National Book Festival, and will initially travel to sites in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Ultimately, "Gateway to Knowledge" is expected to visit up to 60 sites in states across the Midwest and South over the next year.
The exhibition was the idea of philanthropists Abby and Emily Rapoport, the granddaughters of Audre and Bernie Rapoport, founding members of the Library’s private-sector support organization, The James Madison Council. The young Rapoports have donated $1 million to the Library to make the "Gateway to Knowledge" exhibition possible and bring the Library’s riches to areas of the nation — particularly rural areas — that may not be aware of their access to the wealth of information in this publicly funded institution.
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