International Library of Children’s Literature

Last week I paid a visit to the beautiful International Library of Children’s Literature on the edge of Tokyo’s Ueno park. I added an entry about it on my reference wiki with useful information for others who might also be interested. The library shares an old but nicely renovated building with a museum related to children. Use of the library is free and you can use the card you fill out upon entry for multiple visits. The library is connected to the National Diet Library and in addition to Japanese children’s literature also has a good number of children’s books from other countries – especially in Asia.

Since I wasn’t looking for anything in particular I just browsed their stacks. About half of their collection is open stacks and some of it organized in Photocopies are unfortunately somewhat expensive and can’t be done yourself. I ended up hanging out in their textbook section, comparing coverage of a few controversial issues in some of the newer high school textbooks.