The Center for Children’s Books (CCB) at the School of Information Science (iSchool) supports critical inquiry, professional training, and educational outreach related to youth-focused resources, literature, and librarianship. Book Display at th

The Collection:

The CCB's CollectionThe CCB is primarily a research center, and the CCB’s non-circulating collection includes more than 16,000 books.  Most of these books are either historically significant or have been reviewed by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books in the last 5-7 years, making the collection very up to date.  The collection is also quite diverse since the CCB and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books work with small and more specialized publishers whose books may be difficult to find in other libraries or book stores. They also work with the mainstream publishers and have the latest and most popular books.

The collection includes books for youth, birth through high school, plus review copies of nearly all trade books published in the U.S. in the current year.  The collection also includes over 1,000 professional and reference books on the history and criticism of literature for youth, literature based library and classroom programming, and storytelling. 

Who can use the CCB?

CCB Staff Members (2012)Although the CCB is a research center and the collection is non-circulating, the CCB is a public space, and the collection is meant to be used.  The staff at the CCB love to help scholars, teachers, librarians, students, and other educators find what they are looking for.  The CCB is staffed by a director, two graduate assistants and volunteers (primarily from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, but all volunteers are welcome).

Outreach:

The CCB is also involved in outreach and welcomes opportunities to work with professional and local community groups on outreach programs such as storytelling and other programming, themed displays, special events, and university-wide events like the Youth Literature Festival.  Outreach activities include:

• CCB Open House & Galley Giveaway (September)
• Galley Giveaways (September, January, and May)
• Annual CCB Book Sale (President's Day weekend)
• Gryphon Lecture (March) which features a "a leading scholar in the field of youth and literature, media, and culture." Lectures are recorded so others can listen to the audio from home. Audio is available from 2006 to 2015.
• Brown Bag discussions and guest speakers at the CCB (monthly)
• GSLIS Storytelling Festival (April)
• Edible Book Festival (April)
• 2014 Youth Literature Festival which was sponsored by the College of Education and the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities.
• International Story times at the Urbana Free Library in cooperation with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
• Storytelling and Literature support for the Krannert Art Museum’s Week at the Museum program
• Workshops on book blogs, visual literacy, and book making for Tap In Leadership Academy
• Youth Lit Book Club (monthly). To join, email the CCB. Book Club participants vote on what book they will read each month and can attend either in person or virtually via Blackboard Collaborate.

More Information about the CCB:

For more information and announcements about the CCB you can read the CCB’s monthly newsletter or join the listserv at https://mail.lis.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccb.  If you are interested in volunteering at the CCB you can email [email protected] or call (217) 244-9331 for more information.

More Information about Outreach:

For more information about outreach events and activities contact the CCB’s Outreach and Communications Coordinator by email at [email protected] or by phone at (217) 333-4132.

See Also

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Libraries

External Links

• Center for Children's Books Website