Activities

Since 2006 Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media SIKJM runs a professional training program to teach how to foster language and reading skills at children between the age of 0 and 6 years. Students learn to encourage and guide caregivers in kindergartens, nursery schools, libraries and social centers in how to create and preserve […]

Nursery rhymes and songs are a wonderful way to experience the joy of language and rhythm from an early age. They form the basis for a healthy language development and later on reading for pleasure. The “Rhythm and Rhyme” database of the Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media SIKJM offers access to this rich […]

The Swiss Children’s and Youth Book Award honors annually an outstanding publication in any literary genres: picture books, children’s and youth books, non-fiction books or comics. An independent jury nominates five titles from the submitted publications for the shortlist, which is annonced in March, and the winner is selected from that list. During the Solothurn […]

As a continuing education program, SIKJM teaches how to develop and implement stimulating and professional promotion programs for primary school aged students. The goal is to strengthen libraries as a place of playful and creative mediation centre for children by training new literature promoters. Provided with background knowledge on contemporary children’s literature, on existing literature […]

During 2015-2017, Kitabistan organized the “Reading Club” for young people to enhance their understanding of the books they read and to learn about the opinions of other readers on those books. In weekly discussions, readers chose a book and shared their views on the book and its author. These discussions were broadcast live on social […]

Kitabistan’s work on spreading alternative information is not limited to translating and printing books. We also organize conferences, called Kitabistan Talks, where academics from various countries give lectures. During these conferences, authors present their latest publications and experts in their fields speak on various important topics. The main goal of the Kitabistan Talks project is […]

The Honorary Kitabistan Citizen Award is bestowed upon individuals who contribute peace, democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, gender equality, environmental protection, and education – principles that are noted in Kitabistan’s conception. The award recognizes those who have contributed significantly to these values globally through their activities and creativity. Prof Wolf Linder and Prof Sean […]

Pilot reading promotion program in public healthcare settings of the Attica region. Focused on families with young children, “By Reading They Grow” is implemented in collaboration with community health professionals working in 10 public primary healthcare settings in Attica region, in areas with large numbers of vulnerable families. The main purpose of the program is […]

The Aqra d-Dar/Read at Home scheme ensures that students aged 3 to 16 are provided with attractive and diverse books they can read at the comfort of their homes. ​  Through this scheme, all primary, middle and secondary students can borrow up to six books, three in Maltese and three in English to be chosen from age-appropriate catalogues […]