NBA legend Library Card Sign-up Month honorary chair

Contact: Megan McFarlane
Campaign Coordinator
(312) 280-2148
mmcfarlane@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
July 8, 2008

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<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />CHICAGO – The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and a prolific author, has been named honorary chair of Library Card Sign-up Month.

Held in September, Library Card Sign-up Month is a time to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all.

Abdul-Jabbar began his association with the ALA earlier this year, when he was selected by ALA President Loriene Roy to be the keynote speaker for the President’s Program at the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.

The master of the sky hook, the 7-foot-2-inch Abdul-Jabbar led UCLA to three consecutive NCAA titles and the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers to six NBA championships. But Abdul-Jabbar’s achievements go far beyond the court. He has written several books, including “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance; “Giant Steps”; “Black Profiles in Courage”; “A Season on a Reservation”; and “Brothers in Arms.” Four of his books reached bestseller lists.

Abdul-Jabbar said, “The library has always been my own personal time machine. I can walk through the doors and land in any place, any time period in history. I didn’t have to wonder what their worlds were like; I could experience it first hand.”

Abdul-Jabbar is featured in his own READ poster at the ALA store. To order, click http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog&_pn=product_detail&_op=2541.

For more information on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, go to his Web site, http://www.kareemabduljabbar.com/.

Library Card Sign-up Month was launched in 1987. Since then, thousands of public and school libraries join each fall in a national effort to ensure every child does just that. Free tools to help libraries promote Library Card Sign-up Month are available at www.ala.org/librarycardsignup.