The importance of taking proper care of books is emphasized in four striking bookmarks recently produced jointly by the Library's Preservation Directorate and its Center for the Book.
"We are stepping up our outreach efforts," said Diane Kresh, head of the Preservation Directorate. "The bookmarks are the first of several projects we are developing with the Center for the Book. They are available in many of the Library's reading rooms and from both the Preservation Directorate and the Center for the Book."
The brightly colored bookmarks present the following messages: "Turn Pages, Not Corners," "Protect Our Heritage," "Write on Paper, Not Pages," "Every Hand Makes a Difference," "Photocopy with Care," "I Cannot Live Without Books," "Books Change Lives" and "Shape Your Future--Read!"
A second cooperative venture is a Preservation Awareness Workshop, which will be held on April 16, 1996, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the Madison Building. Free and open to the public, the workshop will be the Library's major commemoration of National Library Week. Members of the public are invited to learn about preserving family treasures, such as photographs and letters.
Preservation Directorate staff members will demonstrate different types of enclosures and boxes for storing material and provide information about the damage caused by humidity, temperature, light and atmospheric pollution on paper-based material and on the different types of boxes, folders and enclosures now available.
A wide range of companies that manufacture and distribute conservation products will participate, distributing instructive information about preservation and conservation issues and practices, as well as product samples. For information, write or call Amparo Torres, Preservation Directorate, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4500, (202) 707-1026.
"Books & Beyond" Noontime Talks To Begin. On Jan. 30, the Center for the Book will sponsor the first in a continuing series of noontime talks by authors of books that have a particular relevance to the Library of Congress.
"The speakers will be authors of recent books that are based on the Library's collections or speak directly to issues of concern to the Library and its programs," said John Y. Cole, the center's director. "The Center for the Book invites all Library of Congress divisions and offices to suggest potential speakers." Although the primary audience is Library of Congress staff, the talks will be open to the public. They will be publicized in the staff newspaper, The Gazette, the LC Information Bulletin and the LC "Calendar of Events."
The first speaker will be Jane Aiken Rosenberg, author of The Nation's Great Library: Herbert Putnam and the Library of Congress, 1899-1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1993). Her talk will take place at noon on Monday, Jan. 30, in Dining Room A. Ms. Rosenberg, a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, will discuss the book, her research at the Library of Congress and Herbert Putnam as a personality.
Nebraska Anthology Available. Chasing the River: An Anthology by Young Nebraska Writers, a 155-page book published in conjunction with the Fourth Annual Nebraska Literature Festival held in Omaha in 1994, is available for $7 prepaid from the Nebraska Center for the Book, Lincoln City Libraries, 136 S. 14th St., Lincoln, NE 68508.
Information also is available about the activities of the Nebraska center. Annual individual memberships are $15; organizational memberships cost $25. Members receive copies of the newsletter NCB Quarterly. In addition to sponsorship of the annual Nebraska Literature Festival (held in 1995 at the University of Nebraska in Kearney) and the annual Nebraska Writing and Storytelling Festival, the Nebraska center presents two annual awards: the Mildred Bennett Award for support of Nebraska's Literary Heritage and the Jane Geske Award for organizational support of Nebraska's community of the book.
"Wisconsin Authors Speak." During the first half of 1995, 10 programs featuring Wisconsin authors were sponsored throughout the state under the auspices of the Wisconsin Center for the Book, which is a project of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. A wide range of authors -- children's and adult, poets and academics -- received grants to present the programs, which were co-sponsored by nonprofit agencies. Attendance at the events ranged from 33 to the 710 people who enjoyed one of the writing workshops presented by author and illustrator Gretchen Will Mayo.
Author of works such as Star Tales, Earthmaker's Tales and Meet Tricky Coyote, Ms. Mayo spoke at the Brillion Public Library, Reedsville Elementary School, Sparta Middle School and Sparta High School.
Other presenters were: University of Wisconsin-Madison poet Ron Wallace, whose collection of poems Time's Fancy won the 1995 Banta Award for the best book by a Wisconsin writer. He spoke at the Brossard Memorial Library at Spring Green; author and illustrator Lois Ehlert, whose "Shape Your Future -- READ!" poster is featured in the current Center for the Book national reading promotion campaign, spoke with schoolchildren at the New Auburn Elementary School; Larry Watson, author of the 1994 Banta Award book, Montana 1948, and a new novel, Justice, read at the Janesville Public Library; Denise Sweet, a member of the Anishinabe (Ojibwe) tribe at White Earth, Mich., offered a poetry seminar at the University of Wisconsin Center-Marinette.
Poet J. D. Whitney presented a reading to students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin Center-Baraboo; Millie Stanley, author of The Heart of John Muir's World: Wisconsin, Family and Wilderness Discovery, presented her work at the Platteville City Hall and at the University of Wisconsin- Platteville; Peter Roop, author of more than two dozen children's books, spoke at the Pardeeville Elementary School; and Michael Roberts, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, offered poetry and a discussion of his writing techniques at the University of Wisconsin Center-Waukesha.
The "Wisconsin Authors Speak" program, part of the Center for the Book's Literary Heritage of the States project, was supported by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
Otto Bettmann to Lecture. A longtime friend and supporter of the Center for the Book, Otto L. Bettmann will present an illustrated program, "Images of a Century," at the Smithsonian Institution at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11, 1996. As part of the program, Dr. Bettmann, founder of the renowned Bettmann Archive and a respected scholar and graphic historian, will be interviewed by Center for the Book Director John Cole.
In 1987, for the benefit of the Center for the Book, Bettmann compiled The Delights of Reading: Quotes, Notes & Anecdotes (David R. Godine Publisher, 1987), a book celebrated with a reception and exhibit in the Library's Great Hall (see photo).
Other popular books by Bettmann, who is now 92 years old, are Our Literary Heritage (with Van Wyck Brooks), which was published in 1956 by Dutton, and The Good Old Days --They Were Terrible! (Random House, 1974).
Dr. Bettmann's most recent book, a tribute to his musical background and training, is Johann Sebastian Bach: As His World Knew Him (Carol Publishing Group, 1995). For information about the Feb. 11 program, call the Smithsonian Associates at (202) 357-3030.
Book Design and Printing History in Idaho. The October 1995 (Vol. 2, No. 2) issue of the Idaho Center for the Book Newsletter, published as a colorful broadside, focuses on book design, Idaho presses and news from the Idaho center. Articles include: "Designing Light," by Emily McGowan, which desribes her work in designing the forthcoming A Light in the Window of Idaho: Boise's Public Library, 1895-1995; "The Caxton Printers Ltd.: A Tree of Knowledge and Industry" by Pam Hardenbrook; "Limberlost Press: Letterpressing the Language of the Tribe" by Rick Ardinger; and "The Redneck Press & the Redneck Review of Literature" by Penelope Reedy.
In the same issue, Director Tom Trusky announced a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts for the production of an English-Spanish catalog and video to accompany "Booker's Dozen," the center's 1996 statewide traveling exhibition, and the availability of a new Idaho Center for the Book video documentary, "Journeys of the Lapwal Mission Press, a 25-minute history of the first press in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. The video is available for $19.95 plus $3 for shipping from the Bookstore, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725. For information, call (800) 992-TEXT.
Free subscriptions to the ICB Newsletter, which is published in April and October, are available from the Idaho Center for the Book, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725.
LC History Spotlight: The "Library of Congress Mission to Europe." One of the most significant cooperative projects undertaken by the Library of Congress was the "Cooperative Acquisitions Project for Wartime Publications," which lasted from August 1945 to September 1948. During World War II (as in World War I), American libraries and research institutions were almost completely cut off from the European book market. However, as a government institution, the Library of Congress was in an advantageous position, for many of its overseas contacts remained intact. With support from the library and research communities and the approval of the State Department, in 1945 the War Department and the Library formed the Library of Congress Mission to Europe to locate and forward "the bookstocks believed to be accumulated in Germany (especially in the Russian zone) as a result of prewar orders placed by American libraries."
Twenty-six American librarians and document specialists, including national leaders such as Harry Miller Lydenberg, David H. Clift and Scott Adams, as well as LC employees Julius Allen and Richard S. Hill, eventually were employed abroad for varying periods to purchase publications from the war years, to screen and ship materials obtained from the German army and Nazi Party sources, and "to locate and evacuate stocks of books held by German dealers for American libraries."
Multiple copies were obtained, especially of books "of general reference value," and LC also made available for distribution a wide range of duplicate foreign publications.
Elaborate distribution mechanisms were developed, including a classification schedule with no less than 254 categories, and a system of priorities for participating libraries. Distribution was complicated. According to Robert Downs, who served as chairman of the Committee to Advise on the Distribution of Foreign Acquisitions, "One hundred fifteen libraries asked for some 5,000 priorities in the 254 classes." Priorities were disputed, cost-sharing and financial assessments were debated, and ethical questions were raised and resolved.
By 1948 approximately 2 million items (mostly books and periodicals) had been shipped, with approximately one-third coming to LC (including the so-called "Hitler Library," now in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, and the rest to other libraries. Surplus items went to the U.S. Book Exchange.
The cooperative wartime acquisitions project was important not only in building substantive collections of research materials, especially at the Library, but also in providing lessons for future large-scale cooperative acquisitions and bibliographical and cataloging endeavors.
It also was an early example of government-private sector cooperation and helped establish the Library of Congress as a leader among research libraries. The story is told in detail in the 1946 Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, pp. 262-267, and in Robert B. Downs's article, "Wartime Co-operative Acquisitions" in the July 1949 issue of The Library Quarterly.
"Dear Author" Contributors Read at Borders Bookstores. To celebrate National Children's Book Week in mid-November, young contributors to Conari Press's Dear Author: Students Write About the Books That Changed Their Lives (see LC Information Bulletin, Oct. 2, 1995) read their essays at Borders Bookstores in Washington, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and Lansing, Mich. Two contributors from the Washington area, Alicia Orgram, age 13, from Kensington, Md., and 14-year-old Linetta Alley from Bridgewater, Va., read at a Borders store in Washington on Nov. 4. They were introduced by Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole, who also described the "Letters About Literature contest with Read magazine that stimulated the essays. Dear Author is available in bookstores across the United States.
The New Jersey Connection Inspires Young Readers. One of the Center for the Book's most energetic and effective reading promotion partners, the New Jersey Connection, has issued its 1996 book of entry forms, suggestions and reading awards.
The 10-page booklet, which celebrates the 1995-1996 national reading promotion theme "Shape Your Future -- READ!," contains suggestions for using the theme; an entry form for New Jersey's "Enthusiastic Teacher or Librarian Award"; an entry form and rules for the 1996 "Students' Writings About Reading" essay contest; an entry form and rules for the 1996 "Enthusiastic Reader Award"; a sample Certificate of Recognition for "Enthusiastic Readers"; and a form for gathering information about "readathons" throughout New Jersey in 1996.
Ann Helmstetter is the executive director of the New Jersey Connection, a statewide organization that receives support from more than 20 New Jersey corporations and 18 state educational or civic groups.
The nine elementary, middle and high school students designated as "Enthusiastic Reader Winners" in 1995 were honored at the New Jersey Library Association's annual conference and visited Gov. Christine Whitman in Trenton. They also received a U.S. savings bond from Ronald McDonald's Children's Charities and a selection of books from Troll Books.
The New Jersey Connection also has produced a 60-page 1995 Book of New Jersey Students' Writings About Reading. For information, write the New Jersey Connection, Middle School, 360 Union St., Hackensack, NJ 07601.
