About the Center
The Center for Children's Literature and Culture is an interdisciplinary center based in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Members of the Center include faculty and researchers from the University community; teachers, librarians, media specialists, and others working directly with children; and artists and writers creating works for children in print and other media.
Our purpose is to encourage the exploration of this vital area of our cultural life through scholarly and critical investigations; through meetings, symposia, and seminars; and through the development of innovative ways to make the research and concerns of our members available to the general public.
One of the key resources in our endeavors is the Baldwin Collection of Historical Children's Literature housed in the University of Florida's Special Collections. The Baldwin Library is one of the leading historical collections of children's literature in the country -- indeed, in the world. The Center is committed to working in close cooperation with the Baldwin Library to help raise public awareness of the contents of this remarkable collection.
John Cech,
Director
Associate Directors Rita Smith and Kenneth
Kidd.
Initiatives: Past, Current, Future
- "Recess!" — a daily radio program of reviews, historical and biographical notes, commentaries, interviews, and sound essays that explores the world of children's culture, past and present.
- A series of documentary films based on historical materials from the Baldwin Library.
- An exhibition of the boyhood photographs of the French photographer, Jacques-Henri Lartigue at the Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida. (Summer 2005 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Transforming Encounters Colloquia Series: I (Spring 2004) Libraries Unbound, II (Spring 2005) Children and Science, Imagination and Inquiry, and III (Spring 2006) Children and the Environment.
