The First Lady's Book Festival

SIL International, as a member of the International Literacy Network, participated again this year in the National Book Festival co-sponsored by the First Lady Laura Bush and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Personnel from the SIL International Literacy Department and from the SIL International Relations Department in Washington were involved in the event which took place October 12th. An estimated 35-40,000 people attended the Book Festival.

Our SIL exhibit was in the "Let's Read" Pavilion located on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall. Displayed were samples of some of the materials produced in language development programs where SIL personnel are involved around the world, such as: dictionaries, instructional materials, and local literature. Some 3,000 bookmarks were individually handed out listing a few of our literacy resources and our website address. Visitors to the exhibit looked up languages of interest to them among the 6,800+ world languages itemized in the popular SIL volume Ethnologue.

"Write Your Name in Hieroglyphics" was an interactive part of our SIL exhibit. This popular activity, intended to highlight languages that have no alphabets, drew a steady stream of both children and adults throughout the day.

Our primary purpose for participating in the Book Festival was to help raise awareness for the literacy and local literature needs among the many marginalized language groups of the world.

Article submitted by Pat Kelley, photographs by Joan Bomberger and Richard Lawley.