Austin Public Library, Austin Public Library Foundation, and WhitePages.com partner to raise $10,000 for new library books

AUSTIN, TX—April 4, 2004

The Austin Public Library, Austin Public Library Foundation, and WhitePages.com, a leading provider of online directory assistance services, today announced Books for Books, a fundraising campaign to help purchase books and reading materials for the Austin Public Library. For each white pages phonebook recycled in April, WhitePages.com will donate $1.00 to the Austin Public Library, up to $10,000.

"Books for Books is a vital fundraiser that will help keep books in the hands of Austin residents," said Brenda Branch, director of libraries, at the Austin Public Library. "Through the support of the Austin community, we hope to reach our goal of $10,000 which will be instrumental in purchasing hundreds of books for our library patrons. We encourage all residents to support reading in the community by recycling their white pages phonebook throughout the month of April."

Over the last several years, the Austin Public Library has experienced significant cutbacks in resources used to buy books and promote reading and literacy in the community. Books for Books provides funds critical for purchasing books for the Austin Public Library. Throughout the month of April, residents can recycle old and unused white pages phone books at any branch of the library system. Residents are encouraged to spread the word to their families, friends and neighbors to help the library reach its goal of $10,000.

"With the rise of the Internet, an increasing number of people are heading online to find contact information, leaving many white pages phonebooks unused and in need of recycling," said Max Bardon, president and CEO of WhitePages.com Inc. "Books for Books presents an easy way for Austin residents to support the library system and its efforts to encourage literacy by children and adults. The money raised by Books for Books will leave a lasting impact on the library system and support reading by Austin residents for years to come."

About Austin Public Library Foundation
The Austin Public Library Foundation is a non-profit 501(c) (3) corporation founded in 1995 to increase public awareness about the Library and its importance to the community, and to enhance Library collections, programs and services through financial support. The Foundation has received major gifts from The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the RGK Foundation, and from Advanced Micro Devices, the Austin Community Foundation, Bank of America, Bingo Books, the Dell Foundation, Harcourt Supplemental (Steck-Vaughn), H-E-B, The Junior League of Austin, the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation, the SBC Foundation, the Topfer Family Foundation, Tokyo Electron, the Still Water Foundation, and the Webber Family Foundation.

About the Austin Public Library
Today, the Austin Public Library has 20 branches, the Faulk Central Library, and the Austin History Center (AHC). The AHC is the local history (current events/activities of the City of Austin and Travis County) collection of the Austin (Texas) Public Library. The Austin Public Library has over 500,000 cardholders and others. In 2003-2004, customers visited the libraries almost 3 million times and checked out over 3.2million items. In 1926 (80 years ago) the Library opened with a collection of 500 donated books; today the system holds over one million items. Visit www.cityofaustin.org/library for more information about the Austin Public Library or call the telephone reference at (512) 974-7400.

About WhitePages.com
WhitePages.com, a privately held company based in Seattle, is the most trusted and comprehensive source for consumers to quickly and easily find relevant, accurate contact information in North America. The company's network of sites include WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com), WhitePages.ca (www.whitepages.ca), 411.com (www.411.com), Address.com (www.address.com), PhoneNumber.com (www.phonenumber.com), and its 1,300 partner sites including Superpages.com, YellowPages.com and Canada411. The on-the-go user can also access contact information via cell phone, Blackberrys and other web-enabled mobile devices.

For more information, press only:

Tiffany West
WhitePages.com


Jill Reed
Schwartz Communications
415.512.0770