White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services Remarks at a Meeting of the Conference.

Chairman Charles Benton, Library Director Juanita Brightwell, other distinguished leaders who represent one of the finest aspects of American life:

I really appreciate the book concerning the duties of a trustee for libraries. In the future I may be looking for my old job back. [Laughter] So, Juanita, if you can keep it open for me for 5 years I'll really appreciate it. [Laughter]

I'm delighted to be here with you this morning. It's been one of the developments in my own administration to which I've looked forward with great anticipation. I don't have a text. I don't feel that I need one to talk to you.

I had a quick introduction to Washington, to Washington society life, and to newspaper coverage of the First Family. The first stories that came out, as a matter of fact, were about Amy's reading habits at the table of an official banquet when the President of Mexico came to see us. She read a book throughout the banquet dinner. When I defended Amy I had several of my Cabinet members ask for permission to do the same at the next banquet. [Laughter] As a matter of fact, we have had to put a restraint on that—but since I was a little boy, my own family has had the habit of reading at the table. We have a lively conversation and read simultaneously, and Amy is just carrying on one of the Carter family traditions. I hate to admit this, being an outdoor type and an athletic type, but my family never had to ask me what I wanted for Christmas, because they always knew that I would reply "books."

And when I first went home from the Navy, as Charles pointed out, my first public position was as the trustee of the Sumter County Library Board. I still have my library card. It's Number 5, and I use it whenever I'm home.

This morning I would like to talk to you about some of the elements of libraries that are important to a young boy growing up in an isolated community. Students in our public schools, business leaders and employees of business who are fairly narrowly restricted in their ability to get a continuing formal education, and those who occupy positions of leadership with rapidly varying and challenging responsibilities from day to day—in all those elements of life libraries and access to books and other information play an important role.

Times change very fast. Information available to the world is exploding more rapidly than it can be accommodated, and the function of libraries is to collect information, to collate information, to assess information, to store information, and to let information be available to those who need it.

There are many people in our modern society who are isolated in some form or another—the deaf, the blind, the immobile, the afflicted, those who live in isolated communities are obvious examples, but there are others. Those who have a particular life's career in a fairly narrowly defined area, but who desire constantly to stretch their minds and to stretch their hearts and to know more about the world around them, other people, opportunities for a more gratifying existence, are in the same category as those who are physically isolated. Libraries can play this role to make available to people, in a special occasion for an unexpected event, an opportunity for study.

Science, business, politics, government is an area where rapid information is crucial in dealing with challenges of the day, where long-time study to prepare for an event is impossible, because events that are important cannot be predicted. And there, the instant access to information and the calm and reasoned guidance of a qualified librarian can make the difference between the success or failure, even, of a life.

A President in particular is faced with varied responsibilities. And my access to the Library of Congress and my access to books is one of the most important elements of my life. Amy reads, sometimes two or three books a day. She and I have both had rapid reading lessons since I've been President. I read two or three books a week, sometimes more, and in addition to that have instant access to the broadranging information which is available here in Washington and, obviously, in many other communities in our country.

The Library of Congress was started, as you know, when the Government decided to buy the book collection of President Thomas Jefferson. He withdrew from formal schooling when his life was in the formative stage and began private study-with a tutor, yes, but heavily dependent not on classroom instructions, but on his access to a varied gamut of books. And I would guess that one of the most well educated Presidents who has ever served had limited formal schooling, and that was President Harry Truman. His education came primarily from books, history books and others from his local library.

I'm not at all criticizing or playing down the importance of formal education, but no matter how broad an educational experience has been in a person's life, sometimes determined by the state of a person's birth or the wealth of a family or opportunities that all can't share—no matter how broad a formal education might be, libraries are still important if that person desires to continue in education throughout one's life. This need for knowledge about history or current events is particularly important in a democracy, where the strength of a nation depends to a major degree on a well-informed public.

One of the most important responsibilities that I have had on my own shoulders is to make sure that in controversial events that the public has a maximum access to knowledge about that event. In the past our country has made some serious mistakes in war, in morality, in the functioning of government. In the few years before I became President this was especially true. And in almost every instance, if those circumstances are analyzed, the errors or mistakes were made because the public was excluded from the process of making decisions of our own government.

An enlightened public, openly debating a controversial issue, sometimes creates confusion. It's much easier to negotiate in utmost secrecy than to let the Congress and the public know the terms of the negotiation and the progress being made. But when the controversial issues can be examined from a broad range of points of view, a nation or a government or a President is much more likely, ultimately, to avoid mistakes and to make the right decision that can preserve our own Nation's security, our well-being, and also peace throughout the world.

I'd like to add just one more comment. We've made good progress in the last number of years in promoting the science of libraries, of information, of communication. Each generation is inclined to think we've gone as far as we can with television, instantaneous transmission of messages and photographs, satellite relay stations, but I would guess that the progress we make in the future, in the next 10 years, the next hundred years, will be just as rapid and just as startling as that we've made in the past.

There must be a flexibility built into a government's structure and also in the minds and hearts of American people outside the government, where most of the responsibility must lie. I'm convinced that the new Department of Education will have a greatly expanded and much more effective role in emphasizing the importance of books, of learning, and particularly of libraries. I'm determined that this will be the case.

But I believe that this White House Conference and those who attend it and those who will listen to your voice or whom you can influence when you get home will have a much more broadreaching effect than anything a President can do or a Cabinet Secretary can do or the Federal Government can do.

In a local Lions Club, a local church, a local Rotary Club, a League of Women Voters, Jaycees, in any organization, in a local radio station, television station, newspaper, there are avenues for you to reach a broad range of Americans who don't presently know the advantages of libraries. Many people, because of ignorance or because they've forgotten the joy of learning, don't have access to the opportunities that you can offer.

And I hope if you don't do anything else at this conference, that you will learn from one another how best to present the opportunities of library use and then take that message home and distribute it with the greatest degree of enthusiasm and commitment. When people are reminded, they'll respond. And the joys of books and the joys of visual presentations, the joys of movies, slides, paintings, lectures, debates, instruction, music, drama are all parts of a library program. And I hope that you will broaden your own concept of what libraries can do as a result of this conference.

I'm very grateful that you would come to Washington, in sometimes a sacrificial way, to participate in learning more about how your own career and your own interests can be made more effective. As we spread the word about libraries and learning and democracy and understanding and communication and progress and harmony and peace through your own work, through your work you can remember that you've got a friend in the White House.

Thank you very much.