speeches
Rheinland-Pfalz Library Festival
Ambassador William R. Timken, Jr.
Koblenz
October 1, 2006
As prepared for delivery.
Dr. Frühauf, Herr Knopp, Herr Geis, Professor Hofmann-Göttig,
Thank you for inviting us to attend the closing ceremony of the state library festival. Yesterday, First Lady Laura Bush co-hosted the annual National Book Festival with the Library of Congress on the Mall in Washington. Each year, tens of thousands of book lovers attend the National Book Festival to meet their favorite authors and celebrate lifelong literacy. Like this festival, the National Book Festival presents a great opportunity to see firsthand how reading changes lives and how libraries promote reading in imaginative and inspiring ways.
Like the First Lady, Sue and I are both great fans of libraries because of their potential to improve educational opportunities, open doors to cultures around the world, and connect people. The Embassy and our Consulates support libraries through new partnership initiatives that are designed to develop a broader network of cooperation with libraries around Germany and to showcase the special role that libraries play in society.
I am pleased that we were able to support a series of readings by Holly-Jane Rahlens, a New Yorker who lives in Berlin and who recently won the German Youth Literature Prize, during the festival. Her stories about growing up in a multicultural background from the perspective of a teenage girl are funny but also very instructive. Sue and I would like to donate a collection of her books to the state library center so that her stories are available to library users in this state even after the festival is long over.
That’s what library festivals are all about – to create the memories that lead to a lifelong joy of reading
Congratulations on a great festival – and here’s to the memories.
