About the Reinberger Children’s Library Center
The Reinberger Children’s Library Center opened in 2003 after a generous $240,000 gift from the Reinberger Foundation. It was originally constructed as the Reinberger Children’s Room, a "demonstration" children's public and school library center where thousands of students, paraprofessionals, librarians, teachers and community members have participated in hands-on courses, events and workshops in the space. In 2008, another expansion project was needed after the late Dr. Kenneth and Sylvia Marantz dedicated over 25,000 picture books from the past 40 years, as well as posters, original artwork, ephemera and character toys. The Reinberger Foundation, iSchool and the College of Communication and Information (CCI) funded the expansion of this physical space on the 3rd floor of the Kent State University Library.
Reinberger Children's Library Center supports and encourages scholarly research, provides professional training to students and practitioners and engage in activities and outreach throughout Northeast Ohio, the Columbus Metropolitan area and beyond. The RCLC features a collection of more than 50,000 children’s books, original picture book art, posters relating to children’s books that date back to 1924, an iPad Lab containing 18 iPads with pre-loaded K-12 apps, movable books, historical children’s books and more.
Mission and Goals
From historical books for children to contemporary literature for young people, the goal of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center (Reinberger) and the Marantz Collection of Picturebook Art (Marantz) is to build diverse collections of children’s literature spanning geographic, cultural, physical, technological and temporal borders. These collections represent the best literature and related materials for young people. They also demonstrate the processes involved in producing, publishing, and marketing such literature over time, from evolving means of production, to differing constructions of childhood. In addition, the state-of-the-art Center provides opportunities to study connections between literacy, reading and digital technologies, which is valuable for practitioners as well as scholars.
The Center’s purpose is threefold: 1) to support and encourage scholarly research within its collections; 2) to provide professional training to students and practitioners; and 3) to engage in activities and outreach to the community and beyond. The Center's collection is of interest to interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners from such fields as youth services librarianship, school library media, children's literature, education, English, communication, media studies, design, and others interested in studying youth literature, publishing, young people and reading in both an historical and contemporary context.
