FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2006

Press Contacts
202-653-4628
Kevin O'Connell, koconnell@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov

IMLS Board Member Receives National Humanities Medal

Washington, DC--At a White House ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 9, George W. Bush presented the National Humanities Medal to nine distinguished Americans and one institution for their contributions to the humanities. Included in the awardees was Kevin Starr, a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board (NMLSB). The additional recipients were Fouad Ajami, James M. Buchanan, Nickolas Davatzes, Robert Fagles, Mary Lefkowitz, Bernard Lewis, Mark Noll, Meryle Secrest, and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University.

President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush stand with the 2006 National Humanities Medal recipients in the Oval Office Thursday, Nov., 9, 2006. Pictured from left, they are: Mark Noll, historian of religion; Mary Lefkowitz, classicist; Meryle Secrest, biographer; Bernard Lewis, Middle Eastern scholar; John Raisian senior fellow and director of the Hoover Institution; Robert Fagles, translator and classicist; Nickolas Davatzes, historian; Kevin Starr, historian; Fouad Ajami, Middle Eastern studies scholar; James Buchanan, economist; and NEH chairman Bruce Cole. White House photo by Paul Morse, click image for a larger view.

Presented by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Medal honors individuals and organizations whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand America's access to important humanities resources.

The NMLSB is a twenty-four-member advisory body that includes the director and deputy directors of IMLS, the chair of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and twenty presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed members of the general public who have demonstrated expertise in, or commitment to, library or museum services. Informed by its collectively vast experience and knowledge, the NMLSB advises the IMLS director on general policy and practices, and on selections for the National Awards for Museum and Library Service. President Bush nominated Starr to the NMLSB in May 2006 and he was confirmed by the Senate in August.

Kevin Starr is an American historian best known for his multi-volume series on the social and cultural history of California, collectively called America and the California Dream, which now comprises seven volumes. They are titled Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915 (1973); Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (1985); Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (1990); Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California (1996); The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (1997); Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, California 1940-1950, and Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2002 (2004). He has also been a daily columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the director of his own communications consulting firm. Starr was the seventh State Librarian of California in the twentieth century from 1994 to 2004, after which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger named him State Librarian Emeritus. He graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1962. After serving two years as a lieutenant in a tank battalion in Germany, he took his M.A. in 1965 at Harvard and his Ph.D. in 1969 in American literature. He also holds a master of library science degree from U.C. Berkeley and has done post-doctoral work at the Graduate Theological Union. He currently holds the rank of university professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His writing has won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, membership in the Society of American Historians, and the Gold Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California, the Presidential Medallion of the University of Southern California, and the Centennial Medal of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University. Starr was born in San Francisco in 1940 and lives there with his wife, Sheila. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.

Click here for information on the eight additional individuals and one organization that received the National Humanities Medal for 2006.

Click here for more information on the National Museum and Library Services Board.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit: www.imls.gov.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, new technologies, museum exhibitions, and programs in libraries and other community places. To learn more about NEH, please visit: www.neh.gov.