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About the Arizona Center for the Book

Agency Sponsor
As of January 2, 2004, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records serves as host agency for the Arizona Center for the Book, providing space in its newly restored Carnegie Center (the 1908 Carnegie Library, first public library in Phoenix) at 1101 W. Washington, in Phoenix.

The agency serves as the prime sponsor of the Arizona Center for the Book’s programs and activities with support provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the Library Services and Technology Act.

Affiliate to Center for the Book
The Arizona Center for the Book is one of 50 state affiliates for the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

The goal of state centers is to carry the Center of the Book’s mission of “stimulating public interest in books, reading, literacy, and libraries to the state and local level.”

The mission of the Arizona Center for the Book is to:

• Celebrate books, reading, libraries, and the diverse literary heritage of Arizona;
• Emphasize the importance and value of books and reading as priorities of the state; and
• Promote Arizona literature, libraries, and literacy.

The Arizona Center of the Book:

• Serves as an advocate, a catalyst, and a source of ideas – both at the local level and state level, using the resources and prestige of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy;

• Works in concert with the agency’s Library Development Division, and benefits from the leadership role its staff of professional library consultants take in coordinating statewide planning and development of library services and working with public libraries, to help define and meet the wide variety of information needs that exist in the state;

• Serves the general public. Located in the Carnegie Center, a multi-service center, the Arizona Center for the Book host meetings and events that support the mission of the Arizona Center for the Book. The building is centered on two full blocks of park-like grounds in the State Capitol Mall Complex, in downtown Phoenix.

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