The Library of Congress has announced a five-year, $5 million gift from David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of private equity firm Carlyle Group, to support its National Book Festival.

The library will use the gift to expand the one-day festival, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, into a fully integrated program that emphasizes books, reading, and the library as a place of discovery and learning. The library will also create a festival board, with Rubenstein and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington as co-directors. In that role, Rubenstein and Billington will advise, promote, and fundraise for the festival.

"Mr. Rubenstein's donation will secure the continuation of the library's integrated, national program dedicated to the promotion of books, reading, literacy, and libraries — one of the historic core missions of this great institution," said Billington. "These programs, which celebrate our nation's unparalleled imagination and creativity, now have a more certain future, thanks to Mr. Rubenstein's generosity, which stems directly from his own love of books and reading."