Children’s library named for Clinton dedicated
LITTLE ROCK — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday helped dedicate a new children’s library named for her in Little Rock, saying she hoped it would be a reminder of the importance of reading to a child at an early age.
The former first lady and potential 2016 presidential candidate recalled taking her daughter to the library in Little Rock when her husband, Bill Clinton, served as Arkansas’ governor.
Clinton said she hoped the new library would help parents be their children’s first teacher and cited research that showed the benefits of reading to children regularly in their first years.
“If you do not invest in those first five years of life, if we do not do more to help parents understand what they can do to be their child’s first teachers, then our schools despite all their best efforts are not going to be able to do what should be done to give every child a chance to fulfill his or her God- given potential,” Clinton said in a theater packed with parents and children. “So this library, which is so exciting, is going to be a very visible symbol of that commitment.”
The library system’s board voted last month to name the facility, which opened earlier this year, in honor of Clinton. The system’s board cited her work on issues regarding children’s health and education as Arkansas’ first lady.
Bobby Roberts, the library system’s director, praised Clinton’s work as first lady in 1983 heading up a committee to improve the state’s education system. Roberts said those efforts eventually led to the “rebirth” of the library system.
“Had it not been for the Clintons and the work Secretary Clinton did on those education standards in 1983 that pushed us in that direction, we would be sitting out in the hot July dirt,” Roberts said. “This building wouldn’t be here.”
Before the dedication ceremony, Clinton toured the facility and read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to a group of children at the library.
The library is located just a few miles away from Bill Clinton’s presidential library, which opened in 2004. Both Clintons remain deeply popular in the state, and she easily won the state’s Democratic primary during her unsuccessful presidential bid in 2008.
Clinton didn’t refer to her political future during her remarks at the ceremony, but supporters made it clear they were watching to see what she does next.
“We have watched our secretary as she has done some storied, important things across the nation,” Marian Lacey, the library system board’s vice chairwoman, said at the event. “And we are willing and we are hoping and holding with restrained anticipation what her future might bring and only Secretary Hillary Clinton can answer that.”