Swiss Institute for Children's and Youth Media
The Swiss Institute for Children and Youth Media (SIKJM) is a competence center for literary promotion, research and documentation in the field of children and youth media based in Zurich . It has offices in the Romandie ( Institut suisse Jeunesse et Médias, ISJM) and Ticino ( Istituto svizzero Media e Ragazzi, ISMR). In addition, the eleven cantonal and regional organizations of children's and youth media Switzerland (KJM) belong to it.
organization
The SIKJM, an associated institute of the University of Zurich and an associated member of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences , was founded in January 2002 through the merger of the Swiss Association for Youth Literature (SBJ) with the Swiss Youth Book Institute (SJI). The Johanna Spyri Foundation is the legal entity of the SIKJM. The Johanna Spyri Archive is affiliated with the institute. The SIKJM has offices in Zurich , Lausanne and Bellinzona .
Literal promotion
The SIKJM develops literary funding projects throughout Switzerland and supports intermediaries in their daily work with children's and youth literature. With its offers, the SIKJM wants to open up enjoyable access to reading for children and encourage them to deal productively with literary texts and factual texts in all media.
Swiss reading day
The Swiss Reading Day is a national initiative to promote reading and takes place every year on the fourth Wednesday of May. Numerous private, school and public reading activities are organized throughout Switzerland as part of the reading day.
Swiss storytelling night
The Swiss Storytelling Night was created in 1990 and is coordinated every year by SIKJM in cooperation with Bibliomedia Switzerland and UNICEF . The storytelling night supports the communal experience of stories, promotes reading and offers children, young people and adults access to reading.
Give me a story
The project "Give me a story - Family Literacy" supports parents with a migration background in their resources and skills with regard to the linguistic and literary development of their children.
Verse-and-rhyme database
The verse-and-rhyme database contains verses in the Swiss national languages as well as the most common migration languages in Switzerland. The database is constantly being expanded and is also available in French and Italian.
Book start
Bookart is a joint initiative of Bibliomedia Switzerland and the SIKJM. Every newborn receives a first book through libraries, the pediatrician, or mother and father counseling. For parents, Buchart offers events in many libraries to familiarize them and their toddlers with games, reading and storytelling.
Cultural work
The SIKJM provides and mediates experts for the juries of various prizes in the field of children's and youth media. Among other things, it awards the Swiss Children's and Young People's Book Prize together with the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association SBVV and the Solothurn Literature Days . The SIKJM also nominates an author and an illustrator for the international Hans Christian Andersen Prize every two years . In addition, the SIKJM organizes the Swiss selection for the Illustrators Biennale in Bratislava.
Specialized library
The SIKJM library is the only documentation center in Switzerland that collects and processes children's and young people's literature as well as scientific papers on a broad basis - with historical and contemporary interest. The inventory comprises around 50,000 media, including specialist books, specialist magazines, picture books, children's and young people's books and the international children's book collections by Elisabeth Waldmann and Bettina Hürlimann .
Trade journal
The SIKJM publishes the German-language specialist magazine «Buch & Maus» three times a year, which deals with the latest children's and youth media. In reports, essays, contributions to discussions and specialist articles on children's and youth media, she illuminates literary and media trends and backgrounds. In the opinion of the organization, outstanding new media for all ages in childhood and adolescence will be presented and discussed in the extensive review section. The French-language equivalent of Buch & Maus is "Parole", in Ticino the trade journal is called "Il Folletto". All reviews from Buch & Maus can also be called up via a database on the SIKJM homepage.