IMLS and the Roadmap to Reading

As a charter sponsor of the 2023 National Book Festival, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is once again funding the Roadmap to Reading. It features a fun and educational map activity for young people, who are encouraged to visit all 53 tables to collect a unique stamp and a final giveaway.

Attendees can also meet representatives from their home states and learn about each state's literary heritage from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. IMLS in cooperation with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) and additional funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), makes it possible for a state library representative and/or an affiliate of the Library of Congress's Center for the Book in each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories to participate in the festival.

Roadmap to Reading visitors will learn about innovative programs funded by IMLS in libraries across the nation, as well as the important role of state libraries. In addition to being a destination for completing the Roadmap to Reading activity, the IMLS booth invites visitors to make their mark on a map of the United States.

IMLS Director Crosby Kemper with "The Lincoln Highway" Author Amor Towles

Where: Walter E. Washington Convention Center - Ballroom A (Level 3, South Building)
When: 9:30 am - 10:15 am EDT

Amor Towles’ latest novel, "The Lincoln Highway," is a classic American road novel but within that narrative framework, it continually surprises. It’s about 18-year-old Emmett Watson, who has to get to nowhere in particular, fast, after his father dies and the bank forecloses on their Nebraska farm. Towles is in conversation with Crosby Kemper, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

About the National Book Festival
Since its inception in 2002, the interactive states activity at the National Book Festival, recently rebranded as the Roadmap to Reading, has been a collaborative effort of the Center for the Book and IMLS to promote libraries, literacy, and reading, as well as careers and opportunities in library and information science. Click here to learn more about the National Book Festival.