National Diet Library Newsletter
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No. 156, August 2007 |
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Ms. Patricia
Aldana, President of IBBY,
gave a lecture at the ILCL
gave a lecture at the ILCL
On July 7, 2007, Ms. Patricia
Aldana, President of the International
Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)*, and Ms. Chieko SUEMORI,
Vice-President of the Japanese
Board on Books for Young People (JBBY)** were invited to the International Library of
Children’s Literature (ILCL), a branch of the National Diet Library
(NDL).
*IBBY is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together. Ms. Patricia Aldana (Toronto, Canada) has been elected as President for the term 2006-2008 at IBBY’s 30th General Assembly in Macau, China. She previously served as Vice-President of IBBY between 2004-2006 and 1998-2000 and as a member of the IBBY Executive Committee from 1996-1998.
** Japanese section of IBBY
*IBBY is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together. Ms. Patricia Aldana (Toronto, Canada) has been elected as President for the term 2006-2008 at IBBY’s 30th General Assembly in Macau, China. She previously served as Vice-President of IBBY between 2004-2006 and 1998-2000 and as a member of the IBBY Executive Committee from 1996-1998.
(Cited
from the IBBY official website: http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=about&L=0,
http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=thepresident&L=0)
** Japanese section of IBBY
Ms. Patricia Aldana
Ms. Aldana is also a
publisher, a founder of Groundwood Books,*** a company publishing
children’s books
based in Toronto, Canada. She gave a lecture titled "Books that are
windows, Books that are mirrors - Why multi-cultural publishing matters
and what does it mean?”
Using plenty of pictures, she traced the history of children’s books in Canada, from the books by whites, which barely mentioned people outside the mainstream, to those whose leading characters were children from minority groups. Then she told her experience of sharp criticism on the authenticity of books about minorities written by white authors, which developed to become a strong movement in Canada and the United States in the late 1980s. In that period, it was hard for minorities to get published for various reasons including structural racism, and she began to get involved in publishing children’s books produced by authors and illustrators from minorities, whom she discovered by her own efforts.
She also stressed the importance of multi-cultural publishing which produces books that are “windows” and “mirrors” for children: windows show them the wider world and mirrors give them a clear picture of their own lives. They help children to have self-confidence and understand other people and cultures in a multi-cultural society. She concluded that librarians and publishers can help children to live in such a difficult world by providing the “right” books for them.
Using plenty of pictures, she traced the history of children’s books in Canada, from the books by whites, which barely mentioned people outside the mainstream, to those whose leading characters were children from minority groups. Then she told her experience of sharp criticism on the authenticity of books about minorities written by white authors, which developed to become a strong movement in Canada and the United States in the late 1980s. In that period, it was hard for minorities to get published for various reasons including structural racism, and she began to get involved in publishing children’s books produced by authors and illustrators from minorities, whom she discovered by her own efforts.
She also stressed the importance of multi-cultural publishing which produces books that are “windows” and “mirrors” for children: windows show them the wider world and mirrors give them a clear picture of their own lives. They help children to have self-confidence and understand other people and cultures in a multi-cultural society. She concluded that librarians and publishers can help children to live in such a difficult world by providing the “right” books for them.
*** In 1978 Ms. Aldana founded Groundwood Books of which she is the publisher. Groundwood publishes for all ages of children and is known for the high quality of its award winning Canadian books and for its active programme of translations from other languages. In 1996 Groundwood began to publish original books in Spanish under its imprint Libros Tigrillo.
(Cited from the IBBY
official website: http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=thepresident&L=0)
Ms. Chieko Suemori
After the lecture by Ms.
Aldana, Ms. Chieko Suemori gave a lecture titled “Look toward
Multi-culture - People I met at IBBY,” which is focused on her
four-year experience from 2002 as an IBBY international board member.
She recounted episodes of various people she discovered through IBBY
biennial congresses and the need of books for children in poverty
groups and in war time.
On July 6, Ms. Aldana and the ILCL staff members held a meeting to exchange views on reading promotion activities in Canada and current situation of public libraries.
Ms. Aldana will participate in the pre-conference of the 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council on August in Durban, South Africa, “International conference on Innovative multicultural library services for all” and give a speech on the same issue on August 16.
On July 6, Ms. Aldana and the ILCL staff members held a meeting to exchange views on reading promotion activities in Canada and current situation of public libraries.
Ms. Aldana will participate in the pre-conference of the 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council on August in Durban, South Africa, “International conference on Innovative multicultural library services for all” and give a speech on the same issue on August 16.
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