The ANILIJ Association was created by a group of professors from the Faculty of Philology and Translation of the University of Vigo in 1998. The idea of forming the association originated from a long collaboration with other institutions. The Faculty worked extensively with the Children’s Literature Research Center of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt / Main in Germany and the National Center for Research in Children’s Literature at the University of Roehampton in Surrey (United Kingdom). It was stated the possibility of being part of a European network of the same characteristics. The purpose was to promote the research on Children’s Literature (CHL), often a non-existent discipline in degree curricula, and the collaboration in the national and international scope, to carry out projects, congresses and to publish CHL journals.

On December 16, 1998, Veljka Ruzicka Kenfel, Celia Vázquez García, Lourdes Lorenzo García, Carmen Barreiro García, Ana Fernández Mosquera, Manuel Vieites García and Nathalie Zimmermann Gañán agreed to form an association.

The first constitutive assembly of the association took place on December 2, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Caixavigo Cultural Center (Vigo). This first meeting was a public event open to all audiences The acting president, Dr. Veljka Ruzicka, opened the session, and introduced the entire acting Board of Directors, from which the idea of forming a network of children’s / youth literature researchers had arisen one year ago. Dr. Ruzicka explained that this national association aimed at being integrated into a similar existing European network.