August 2, 2018 North Carolina Humanities Council Now Operating N.C. Center for the Book

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress welcomes the North Carolina Humanities Council as a new affiliate center. The council, based in Charlotte, N.C., will operate the North Carolina Center for the Book, part of a network of state centers promoting an interest in reading.

“We are thrilled to now operate the North Carolina Center for the Book,” said North Carolina Humanities Council Executive Director S. Paula Watkins. “The North Carolina Humanities Council has a longstanding, 46-year history of promoting literacy, libraries and literature through statewide programming, and we look forward to continuing this tradition as the new North Carolina Center for the Book affiliate.”   

The North Carolina Humanities Council has supported the state’s Center for the Book since 2000 through a partnership with the State Library of North Carolina, managing the center’s community reading and discussion program, “Let’s Talk About It.” The council will continue to operate the reading program as well as its other public humanities programs including its “Veterans Reading Groups,” a reading and discussion program for veterans; the “Linda Flowers Literary Award,” a statewide writing contest; and “Museum on Main Street,” a program bringing traveling exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution to rural communities, and more.

“I warmly welcome the North Carolina Humanities Council as the new home of the North Carolina Center for the Book,” said John Van Oudenaren, director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. “The North Carolina Center has made a deep commitment to the promotion of books, reading and literacy with its many diverse programs throughout the state.”

Congress created the Library’s Center for the Book in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading. It has become a national force for reading and literacy promotion with affiliates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The affiliates meet every spring at the Library of Congress to exchange ideas. For more information, visit read.gov.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States – and extensive materials from around the world –both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

The North Carolina Humanities Council is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The North Carolina Humanities Council is supported by the National Endowment and by private contributions. For information about the Council’s programs and services, visit nchumanities.org.