The Institute for Research on History of Children's Literature (IRHCL) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization founded in 2000 by enthusiastic researchers in children's literature. In the twenty years of its flourishing, it has engaged with widespread national and international activities. As a unique Iranian organization in childhood studies with successful background, the institute has received the outstanding IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award for the Read with Me Project in 2016. While the public sponsors the institute, it has also run by doing some cultural projects and producing books for children and young adults. In case it earns some money, it will use it for fulfilling its aims.
Our Goals
- To conduct researches on the history of children's literature and childhood studies.
- To collect and restore valuable historical information on the cultural life of Iranian children.
- To establish and expand research libraries on the history of children's literature and childhood studies.
- To collect documents and museum objects for establishing a national museum of children's culture and literature.
- Doing research on emergent literacy and using children's literature for creative education.
- To expand cultural relations between the Iranian children's literature society and international children's literature communities.
- To publish fundamental and practical researched books on children's literature and children's culture.
- To plan reading promotion through the Read with Me project.
Our Activities
The institute's primary goal is to explore the history of Iran's children's literature and childhood studies. Hence, it has published the ten-volume researched books on the history of children's literature of Iran consisting of information about children's literature from ancient Persia to the Islamic Revolution era. They compile some facts on the history of children's literature of Iran and the historical development of the children's culture and education in different periods.
Meanwhile, the enthusiastic researchers of the IRHCL are conducting some researches on childhood studies. Since various fields of study are discussing in this line of research, they are working on children's health, clothing, children's life needs, etc., as well as doing researches on the children's literature and education, which would publish in the future.
Furthermore, aiming to conduct studies on childhood studies, children's culture, and children's literature, the IRHCL has decided to collect children's culture documents and objects to establish the national museum of children's culture. To establish the national museum of children's culture, it has always attempted to exhibit the items and documents on children's culture in Iran and abroad to vitalize children's museum culture in Iran.
The IRHCL has a research-based library and attempted to preserve the works and documents related to children, such as children's books and different academic and non-academic articles. It has also kept more than twenty thousand objects in its national museum of children's culture. The infant beds such as the cradles, bassinets, baby hammocks, talismans and amulets, dolls and toys, children's clothes, and a precious collection of lithographic printing of books and documents related to children's education also find in these collections.
The IRHCL also aims to focus on emergent literacy and creative education through children's literature. Iran is underdeveloped in the fields of study, such as emergent literacy and basic literacy. The institute has attempted to follow this research line ten years ago and has published some books related to this field.
Since literature brings pleasure to children in thousands of years, children's education has occurred through myths and stories. Thus IRHCL has attempted to enhance the quality of education by the publication of best quality children's books.
The Ketabak site (Ketabak.org) and the Read with Me project are to promote reading programs. Ketabak focuses on the news and reports on children's culture and reading promotion by introducing the best quality children's books. The Read with Me project is promoting book reading in the farthest Iran regions and attempted to connect basic literacy with reading literary texts among children and young adults.
The IRHCL has published more than one hundred best quality children books (fiction and poems) written or translated for children and young adults to promote book reading among Persian children and children who could read and listen to Persian language books.