Day 18
I had a
good day yesterday working more on some analysis of bilingual books from the
White Raven Catalogue, refining my analysis and adding in supporting
literature. This is my favourite part of my job, shaping an argument in
writing. As part of my writing I have had to give a little of the history of
White Ravens, and look through some of the old catalogues. Reading more about
Jella Lepman is very interesting, and makes me appreciate even more the special
nature of the library I am working in. Here is something of what I wrote to
give you a flavour:
The Internationale Jugenbibliothek
(International Youth Library) was established in 1949 by Jella Lepman in
response to the end of World War II. Lepman was a German journalist who relocated
to London during the war and became a British citizen who worked for the
Foreign Office, the BBC and the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. She
strongly believed in the power of children’s books to promote peace and international
understanding, and after returning to Germany in November 1951 she organised a
meeting entitled ‘International
Understanding through Children’s Books’ which was the birthplace of the
International Board on Books for Young People, or IBBY (International Board on
Books for Young People, 2017) which was registered as a non profit organisation
in Switzerland in 1953.
The Internationale
Jugenbibliothek (International Youth Library) is the largest youth library in
the world, and is based on the belief that children’s literature is an
essential part of every society which must be “preserved, documented and shared”
(Raabe, 2017, p. 4). Aside from its international fellowships promoting research
in the library by up to 15 international scholars each year, the IJB also produces
an annual White Raven’s (so named because of the rarity of the white raven) catalogue
of 200 books from over 50 countries in 30 languages chosen from the thousands
of books received by the IJB from publishers around the world. The books are
chosen by the language and children’s literature specialists of the IJB to represent
universal themes, high literary and illustration quality, and innovative design.
This list is presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair each year, and in Bologna in
the following year copies of the books are available for international visitors
to the fair (Internationale Jugendbibliothek, 2017).
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