Christie Vilsack Visits 500 Iowa Public Libraries

First Lady Christie Vilsack reached her goal of visiting 500 Iowa public libraries on November 14 when she stepped into the Davenport Public Library-Fairmont Street.

As those in the library community know, it has been her mission during her tenure as first lady to make people aware of the importance of literacy and libraries in people's lives.

Vilsack will now turn her attention to expanding the definition of literacy to include technical literacy.

According to an article in the Quad-City Times Vilsack is now promoting the Verizon Tech Savvy Awards.  Through a partnership with the National Center for Family Literacy and the Verizon Foundation, Vilsack created the awards to recognize programs that de-mystify technology for parents and enable them to better guide their children in the use of new media.

The awards program is designed to assist grassroots, community-based non-profit organizations, libraries and schools to incorporate information, communications and technological literacy as a component and enhancement of literacy.  Four $5,000 regional awards and one $25,000 national award will be presented annually.