Switzerland

Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media SIKJM (Switzerland)

The swiss section of IBBY is represented by the Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media SIKJM.

The SIKJM is the national center of excellence for children's and youth literature. With its headquarters in Zurich and its smaller regional offices in Lausanne and Bellinzona, it is the only institution in Switzerland that deals comprehensively with children's and youth literature. It also develops literacy promotion projects for children and young people.

The SIKJM is supported by the Johanna Spyri Foundation. It is an associated institute of the University of Zurich UZH and a member of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Science SAGW.

The activities of the SIKJM include:

• The Institute owns and houses a unique library with an extensive collection of historical and contemporary children's and youth books, ranging from the 17th century to the present day. Part of this collections are the former private children’s book collections of Bettina Hürlimann, Elisabeth Waldmann and Peter Keckeis. The library also offers a wide range of academic literature on the topic and is home of the Johanna Spyri Archive, which handles the legacy of the Zurich writer Johanna Spyri. The library's collections are an important and valuable cultural heritage of Switzerland.

• The SIKJM offers teachers, librarians, parents and other interested parties advisory services, as well as book and media recommendations. The Institute maintains “Ricochet”, the leading online database on French language children's and youth literature (www.richochet-jeunes.org). A database with reviews on German-language children's and youth media is available on the website www.sikjm.ch.

• The SIKJM offers courses and training programs in the field of literacy promotion, children’s and youth literature and related subjects. These continuing education courses are aimed at librarians, teachers and other interested parties. The Institute thereby cooperates closely with Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, Universities of Teacher Education and education associations.

• The Institute develops and manages reading promotion projects for children and young people. The programs start at infancy (for example: “Book Start: Books for Babies”) and reach to the end of school age. The SIKJM especially focuses on the early literacy promotion for families with migration background. The Institute constantly expands and improves its projects to meet current needs.

• The SIKJM also aims to strengthen children's and youth literature in general and Swiss children’s and youth literature in particular. Together with the Swiss Publisher and Booksellers Association SBVV and the Solothurn Literature Days the Institute organizes, for example, the “Schweizer Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis”, an annual prize for books for children and young people by Swiss authors and illustrators. It also represents Switzerland on international juries and coordinates Swiss nominations for the most prestigious international prizes for children's and youth literature. The Institute furthermore organizes events, exhibitions and publishes the professional journals “Buch&Maus” (in German) and “Il Folletto” (in Italian).

• In addition, the SIKJM is also a research center. Its staff researches historical and contemporary children's and youth media, addresses current topics and communicates the results to an interested public through publications and exhibitions. The SIKJM is integrated into a national and international network of libraries, research institutions and interest groups with similar objectives. Since January 2007, the SIKJM has been an associated institute of the University of Zurich.