International Youth Library

The International Youth Library (IYL) (Internationale Jugendbibliothek, IJB) in Munich is a library that specializes in the collection of children and youth literature from around the world in order to make them available to the public, focusing on the international community. This library is the largest of its kind worldwide, and has been operating since June 1983, in Blutenburg Castle in the Munich district Obermenzing, before this time the library was located in Schwabing.

The International Youth Library is a center for International Child and Youth literature, offering reading sessions, workshops, podium discussions, developmental programs, exhibitions and through the assistance of other literary establishments, a forum for international child and youth literature.

Since 2010, The International Youth Library has been hosting the White Ravens Festival for International Child and Youth literature, held every 2 years, and in 2013 the first James Krüss prize for international child and youth literature, to be awarded every 2 years, was handed out allowing a new author to be discovered and recognized for his accomplishments.

The White Ravens recommendation list and the yearbook "Das Bücherschloss" (Castle of Books) assist in the discussions about international child and youth literature. With its "Arche Kinder Kalenders" (Arche Calendar for Children) the library broadens the cultural horizons for children.

Through readings, writing workshops and workshops for exhibitions, literature museums and children literary themes, the library has become a key partner for schools, and daycares. The children’s library contains over 30.000 books and electronic media in over 20 different languages that is available free to borrow.

The Munich library was founded in 1949 by the journalist and author Jella Lepman. The idea was a huge success because of the youth book exhibition in 1946, from which the exhibition material became the basis for the library's collection. On 14 September 1949, the international youth library opened with a collection of over 8000 volumes. Jella Lepman's idea to promote tolerance, reconciliation and understanding of other life forms and cultures with the help of international child and youth books as influential material, was received by the public with great interest. The international youth library serves as an archive of the valuable and rare collection, as well as a place for children’s gathering and interacting and to promote its objectives.

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