Slovenia

The Slovenian Section of IBBY was established in the main Slovene Children's Library, The Pioneer Library, in 1992, shortly after the formation of the independent state of Slovenia. Many of the founding members were involved in the former National Section of Yugoslavia, which had hosted the IBBY Congress in Ljubljana in 1966;  April 2nd was proclaimed the International Children's Book Day (ICBD) at this Congress.

The Slovenian Section of IBBY has 50 individual and 12 collective members, among them there are:  Ljubljana City Library, Maribor Public Library, Murska Sobota Public Library,  Slovene Write's Association, Slovene Reading Badge Society – ZPMS, Union of Associations of Slovene Librarians, Fine Artists´ Association - Section of Illustrators, The journal The Child and a Book and some publishing houses.

The Section aims to be the focal point for each institution or individual concerned with children's literature in Slovenia. It regularly informs the public about IBBY’s activities and is closely involved with reading promotion. It also fosters international links with the International Youth Library (IJB), the Biennale of Bratislava (BIB) and Bookbird, as well as with IBBY National Sections worldwide. 

It has nominated several best authors and illustrators for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) and for the IBBY Honour List. It has nominated for the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award the best Slovene reading promotion programmes. It has sent several best Slovene children’s books to different international exhibitions and collections. The members of the Slovenian Section of IBBY regularly attend at the IBBY World Congresses every two years (often with paper presentations), international symposiums and professional seminars.  

A large proportion of IBBY Slovenia’s activities are centred around the International Children’s Book Day, on April 2nd: an exhibition and symposium are co-organized at the MKL, Pionirska-Centre for Children's and Youth Literature and Librarianship, followed by an evening ceremony at the Slovene Writers' Association. The Slovenian Section of IBBY was the international sponsor of ICBD 1997: Matjaž Schmidt illustrated the poster and Boris A. Novak wrote the message Childhood Is Poetry of Life. Poetry Is Childhood of the World.   

Since 2010 the Section has awarded »the Award of the Slovenian Section of IBBY« to the best reading promoters and children’s literature in Slovenia and among the Slovene people in the world.