David Rubenstein Contributes $1.5 Million to Library of Congress to Fund New Literacy Awards

From the AP:

Billionaire investor David Rubenstein is giving the Library of Congress $1.5 million to fund three new literacy awards.
Rubenstein of Bethesda, Md., is co-founder of the Carlyle Group private equity firm. He is a major philanthropist and in 2010 gave the library $5 million to support the National Book Festival.

From the LC Announcement:

The literacy awards program will be managed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Final selection of prize winners will be made by the Librarian of Congress, who will solicit recommendations from literacy experts on a National Advisory Board to be established for the program. Criteria for the prizes include innovation, replicability, sustainability, measurable impact and demonstration of reliance on existing professional literature and applied practice.
The first winners will be announced in 2013 at the second annual International Summit of the Book, which will be held in Singapore on August 16, 2013.
The literacy awards announcement was a rousing kickoff for the first-ever summit, where a panoply of experts in books, literacy and publishing met to discuss the value of books and the challenges faced by cultures that rely on this long form of information transmittal.
“Books in their many forms are nothing short of imperative to an informed democracy,” Billington said. “They key is its in-depth format: this presentation of a concept or story is the key to converting mere information into knowledge.”

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