Book Publishers

PRESS RELEASE

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Harcourt Trade Publishers, a publishing company affiliated with San Antonio-based Harcourt Assessment, is donating 10,000 children's books to the San Antonio Public Library Foundation's 2005 "Born to Read" initiative.

The kick-off of the 2005 program and the announcement of the lucky winners of last year's Born to Read Savings Bonds drawing took place today at the Central Library.

Representatives of Harcourt and the office of Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez, as well as staff and board members of the Library and the Library Foundation, and Born to Read hospital partners and sponsors joined children from the Sunshine Cottage School to mark the occasion.

The Born to Read initiative was launched in 2003 as part of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation's celebration of the Library's centennial. Since then, the Foundation has provided approximately 25,000 babies born in Bexar County with a canvas literacy bag filled with two books and other items geared to make them lifelong readers.

As the exclusive book supplier for Born to Read, Harcourt is donating a total of 10,000 books -- 6,000 copies of "Good Night," 1,400 copies of "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and 2,600 copies of "Crunch Munch." Harcourt will also supply 40,000 additional books at a discount.

"Harcourt Trade Publishers is so pleased to be a part of this worthy initiative," said Lori Benton, vice president and publisher of Harcourt's Children's Books Division. "When parents read with their infants, they are taking an important step toward nurturing a child who is ready to learn and instilling a lifelong love of books."

"With the help of Harcourt and San Antonio's hospitals, we will educate more than 25,000 new parents about the value of reading to their children from an early age, and we will provide them the tools they need to do so successfully," said Kaye Lenox, president/CEO of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation. "We commend Harcourt for its enthusiasm and passion and the active role the company is taking in our community to promote literacy."

For future research purposes, the Foundation offered parents of all 2004 Bexar County newborns the opportunity to register to win a $1,000, $500 or $300 savings bond by sending in an information card included in the literacy bag.


About Born to Read

Through the Born to Read initiative, the Library Foundation is working to intervene early to help parents understand their critical role as their children's first teachers. A love of reading and an appreciation for the amazing journeys that can be taken through books must be instilled at an early age.

By partnering with area hospitals, the Library Foundation is providing every newborn in Bexar County with a Born to Read literacy bag filled with books and information to let parents know the Library is there for them, in their neighborhood, with a virtually endless supply of free books. The goal is to make these babies a generation of readers and lifelong learners.


About Harcourt

Harcourt Trade Publishers has been producing high quality, award-winning books and related products for more than eighty years. Harcourt Trade Publishers is a unit within the Harcourt Supplemental, Professional, and Trade division of Harcourt Education, a global education provider serving students and teachers in Pre-K through grade 12, adult learners, and readers of all ages.

Visit the Harcourt Trade Publishers Web site at
http://www.HarcourtBooks.com .

San Antonio-based Harcourt Assessment is a corporate sponsor of the Born to Read initiative, and is a leading provider of high-quality assessment instruments and testing programs used by educators, psychologists, speech- language pathologists, occupational therapists and businesses.

The company is affiliated with Harcourt Trade Publishers and other Harcourt publishing companies, and together they form the global education brand of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL) -- a world-leading publisher and information provider operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business- to-business industry sectors.


About Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez

Charles A. Gonzalez is currently in his third term in the United States Congress as the representative from the 20th Congressional District of Texas. In a meeting with Library Foundation staff last year, Congressman Gonzalez endorsed the Born to Read program and pledged to support a request for federal funding to expand the program for the next five years.

A former San Antonio elementary school teacher, Congressman Gonzalez knows first hand the importance of early education, and he truly considers reading to be the bedrock for a lifetime of learning.

Since 1999, Congressman Gonzalez has served as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Education Task Force, and as chair of the CHC Civil Rights Task Force.


About the San Antonio Public Library

Founded in 1903 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, the San Antonio Public Library operates 21 locations throughout the city, with three more scheduled to open in 2005 and 2006. Last year, the library welcomed more than 3.8 million visitors, and library staff answered more than 1.1 million reference questions.

The library holds more than 1.8 million items, including books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, videos and databases. The library system also has more than 300 public-access computers available at no charge. The library's 641,000 cardholders checked out nearly six million items in 2004. A library card is free, and items can be checked out at no charge.

The Central Library, which opened in 1995, was designed by world-famous Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and contains approximately 240,000 square feet. It houses the 20-foot-tall "Fiesta Tower," by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly; "San Antonio in World War II," a mural by San Antonio's Jesse Trevino; and "The Blue Room," by neon artist Stephen Antonakos.


About the San Antonio Public Library Foundation

While the City of San Antonio has expanded the Public Library system and staffed it since its founding 98 years ago, public funding alone has not been able to keep pace with the needs of a growing populace. Recognizing the power of pooled resources, the City's former mayor, Henry Cisneros, and a group of concerned community leaders established the San Antonio Public Library Foundation in 1983 as a 501(c) (3) charitable organization to augment the Library's budget with private and philanthropic support.

The mission of the Library Foundation is to increase the awareness, use and resources of the Library, thereby enhancing the community's appreciation and utilization of the Library as a cultural, educational and community development institution.


More information: www.HarcourtBooks.com