First Lady Laura Bush Fills White House Library Shelves With Titles From ABA

When the ABA Board presented a gift of books for the White House Library to First Lady Laura Bush on October 9, the Board members and senior staff each gave her titles to represent the more than 260 titles in the collection. The 17 titles presented were the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year (BSBY) winners and honor books for fiction and nonfiction, the BSBY winners for Children's Literature and Children's Illustrated titles, and the BSBY winner and honor books in the Rediscovery category.

However, by the weekend, the entire collection had been delivered to the White House, and the First Lady, a former teacher and librarian, and a noted reader, began unpacking and filling the White House bookshelves.

On October 16, the First Lady attended a ceremony to help commemorate the opening of the West Regional Branch of the Mobile Public Library in Mobile, Alabama, a 59,000 square-foot building. After a speech and cutting a cake to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mobile Public Library, she noted that she was able to sympathize with the librarians, who were working to get the books on the shelves in the new $10.5 million facility.

As Jeff Amy reported in the Mobile Register, the First Lady said that she had put the ABA White House Library titles on her shelves, providing ample new reading choices. Amy's piece noted that "in her speech, she wished that the new building gave Mobilians the same delight in a stack of unread books that she has."