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HISTORY OF
TOY LIBRARIES
It is generally
acknowledged that the first toy lending library opened in
Los Angeles in 1935. It has been verified by the
International Toy Library Association as the oldest in the
world. Its formation began in the summer of the 1934 during
the Great Depression.
Toy lending libraries
can be found in many parts of the world, just to name a few.
Sweden - The person
who gets credit for starting the toy library movement in
Europe is Dr. Karin Stensland Junker. She had two
children with severe handicaps, she started a play library
in 1963 with the mother of another handicapped child.
Norway - In 1969 a
preschool teacher, Unni Boehmer, began the first Norwegian
toy library. United Kingdom - The first British toy library was set up in
1967 by Jill Norris, a teacher, who had two children who
were handicapped. In 1972 the Toy Libraries Association was
formed. In 1983 the name PLAY MATTERS was adopted by the
association. In Scotland the playbus movement started in the
1970s. Canada -
The Canadian Association of Toy Libraries was founded in
1975 under the leadership of Joanna von Levetzow, a social
worker from England. By 1985 there were more than 200 toy
libraries around Canada.
Netherlands - The first toy library in
Holland started in 1973 in Haarlem. This toy library was
intended for children with handicaps.
Australia - Much of the credit for
developing toy libraries in Australia goes to Annetine
Forell. She visited England and discovered the toy libraries
there, so she set up on in Melbourne in 1971.
Switzerland - Ann Libbrecht
Gourdet and several parents formed the first toy library in
1972
in the German part of Switzerland.
Russia - The first toy library opened in
Moscow in the summer of 1992
New Zealand - in 1972 Miss Gillian
Gorick, a physiotherapist from Hamilton took up the idea of
a Toy Library with the Crippled Children Society. Planning
began, and in 1974 Hamilton became the first center in New
Zealand to have a Toy Library. Since then others have taken
up the challenge, and there are now over 220 toy libraries
spread between KeriKeri and Invercargill.
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