LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Things aren't improving fast enough or far enough, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, and particularly among women.

U.S. First Lady Laura Bush was at U.N. headquarters in New York Tuesday to spotlight the need for improved literacy. The statistics are daunting, 774 million people worldwide cannot read and write. Two-thirds of them are women. Seventy-five million children do not attend school. And in Africa, only 61 percent of adults can read and write, compared with the world average of about 82 percent.

More from the Voice of America.

After leaving the White House Laura Bush plans to continue promoting literacy through the United Nations and the George W. Bush presidential library in Dallas.

The AP reports that the first lady, who will host the National Book Festival on Saturday, also said she hopes her signature Washington event becomes a lasting tradition -- and she'll whisper something about that to the next first lady. This is the eighth year for the book festival, which will be covered on BookTVon CSpan-2 all day Saturday.

Will we miss having a librarian in the White House?

"The belief that books aren’t “real” is exactly what keeps many kids from preferring to read, but while the first lady, Laura Bush, and daughter Jenna Bush are on target with their diagnosis in “Read All About It!” their course of recommended treatment is hard to follow, let alone swallow" says NYT reviewer Roger Sutton about this new title.

On the subject of "Read All About It" (oops, watch out, when you click this link you hear the authors speaking about their book)... Sutton asks "Whom is this book supposed to convince, and of what?" The main character, Tyrone Brown, (“professional student and class clown”) would say, (according to Sutton) "it’s not real. The point is laboriously made, the teachers’ names are dorky, the plot is hectic and the suspense and dialogue are artificial. What child today says “pesky”? (And anyone who has ever shelved books for minimum wage is likely to feel insulted by Tyrone’s aggrieved dismissal of the library: “All I will meet there are stinky pages.”)

Jenna's away on her honeymoon; maybe she won't get a chance to read the review.

How can Laura Bush be the wife of George and a librarian?

Speaking of the First Lady, Laura Bush is hoping to have the George W. Bush Presidential Library at SMU showcase and promote activities she pursued while living in the White House.

Bush stated: "I hope that out of both the library and the Bush institute that will be there, I'll be able to continue working on the issues that are important to me. And part of that is education and literacy, including worldwide and especially the education of girls and women in Afghanistan."

Here's the scoop from the Dallas Morning News.

Oh, did anyone catch Mrs. Bush on the Today Show? Impressions?

And who doesn't love RIF? Since 1966, it's been a dynamic program providing books to underprivileged children and encouraging them to read; now its very existence is threatened.

According to Kevin Howell of Publishers Weekly, RIF's CEO and president Carol Rasco tells us that if Bush’s budget is approved, 4.6 million children will not receive 16 million free books in 2009. RIF has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975. It is the oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization in the U.S.

Here's the website to take action on this issue: RIF Support.

WWLauraD?

George sent over a Link To American Libraries and their interview with Laura Bush. There's also a video and a transcript.

Q.: I have one final question for you, and that’s about the future. What comes after the White House? Are you going to have a role in your husband’s presidential library? Are you going to do some writing?

Mrs. Bush: Oh, I will have a role in his presidential library. I’m really looking forward to being actively involved in the building of it. We have a very good architect.

Hear ye hear ye...this could be one of the final Laura Bush stories:

"A nation that does not read for itself cannot think for itself. And a nation that cannot think for itself risks losing both its identity and its freedom. Ray Bradbury was right when he said, 'You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.'

"Both reading and a love of reading are learned behaviors that should be taught at home and in schools. Like many of you in this room, I've spent my life in the company of good books, because my mother taught me to love them, and my teachers taught me to read them, and my library let me take them home free. Those early experiences had a profound impact on my life, and on my career as a public school teacher and librarian, and on my present work in the U.S. and around the world."--First Lady Laura Bush, speaking yesterday at the AAP annual meeting in New York City.

You just know any interview on FOX & Friends is going to be full of hard hitting and insightful questions. This Interview Of Billington & Bush is no exception. The first question asked was just what you'd expect from the liberal driveby media: "Just out of curiosity, who would be the number one librarian? Would it be the First Lady or the guy sitting next to you, Mrs. Bush?"The attack continued for 6 minutes.

Chron.com reports First lady Laura Bush is getting an Austin library named in her honor.

Construction is set to begin next year on the Laura Bush Community Library in a posh Austin neighborhood. It'll be the first library named solely for the former librarian and school teacher.