Syftet med den här kvalitativa studien är att bidra med kunskap om hur förskollärare och barnskötare använder textlösa böcker samt hur dessa böcker kan användas för att stötta barns förmågor att berätta. Studien baseras på fem videoinspelade observationer där en textlös bok används av en förskollärare eller barnskötare tillsammans med två barn. Det sociokulturella perspektivet användes som teoretiskt ramverk under analysen av empirin. Resultatet visar att förskollärarna och barnskötarna använde sig av åtta kommunikativa strategier för att stötta barns berättande: tillåtande klimat, turtagning, tydliggöra och bekräfta, medveten tystnad, kontextualisera handlingen, stötta och utveckla språket, vuxeninitierat berättande samt inlevelse. Slutsatser som dras är att de textlösa böckerna fungerar som medierande redskap där förskollärares och barnskötares kommunikativa strategier stöttar barns berättande. Stöttningen leder till att barn blir aktiva medberättare, vilket kan gynna deras litercyinlärning.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att få förståelse för hur förskollärare beskriver materialet på förskolan samt användningen av materialet. Studien får syn på de normer som speglas i förskolans material som är tillgängligt för barnen. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar genomfördes halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fyra förskollärare från två olika förskolor. Utöver intervjuerna utfördes besök på förskolorna för att samla in data i vilket material som fanns tillgängligt för barnen. Datananalyserades genom en ständigt jämförande metod och genomarbetades grundligt i nivåerna kodning, tematisering och summering. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån ett normkritiskt perspektiv. Studiens resultat visar att förskollärarna besitter ett normkritiskt perspektiv både i inköp och användning av material. Förskollärarna uttrycker att de kan utveckla deras interkulturella arbete och att det är genom böcker som de främst tar in olika kulturer. Resultatet presenteras i fem teman: ”olika kulturella bakgrunder”,”överrepresentation av vita karaktärer”, ”mångfald i närmiljön”, ”normbrytande representationer av kön” samt ”samtal om olikheter och värdegrund”. I resultatet synliggörs även att materialet på förskolorna speglar ett visst normkritiskt perspektiv med undantag i en överrepresentation av vita karaktärer i böcker och övrigt material. Studien visar slutligen att ett normkritiskt perspektiv behövs i förskolan för att uppnå en interkulturell praktik där alla får plats och kan känna igen sig i materialet som erbjuds.

The present study examined the possibility that reading books might support declarative memory, and potentially contribute to the cognitive reserve and thereby minimize age-related decline in memory functions. It was a crosssectional study, where data were taken from 566 Betula Study participants, as well as the scores of declarative memory assessment tasks, and book reading reports. The tasks of episodic memory were sentence learning with and without encoding enactment –free and cued recall. The tasks of semantic memory were word fluency, initial letter A, M fivewords, B profession names, and SRB –vocabulary. Three-way analysis of variance was performed for hypothesis testing. The results showed that book reading might support declarative memory. There was a significant relationship between education and book reading. Was not found if book reading might minimize age-related decline. In conclusion, the study showed that book reading and years of education might support declarative memory. / Denna studie undersökte om läsandet av böcker stödjer deklarativt minne, och eventuellt främjar den kognitivareserven, vilket medför en minimerad åldersbaserad reduktion i minnesfunktioner. I denna tvärsnittsstudie ingick datafrån 566 deltagare i Betulaprojektet som testats med avseende på deklarativa minnesfunktioner, samt enlitteraturanalys. Utvärderingarna som baserades på episodiskt minne var; menings-inlärning med och utan 'encodingenactment' -både fri och stödd återgivning. Test av semantiskt minne var ordflöde med första bokstav A, M fem-ord,B yrkesnamn, och SRB-ordförråd. Tre-vägs variansanalyer genomfördes för hypotestestning. Resultaten visade på enkoppling mellan utbildning och läsandet av böcker. Det är dock fortfarande oklart om läsandet av böcker minimeraråldersbaserad minnes-reducering. Sammanfattningsvis, visade studien att läsning och utbildning kan stödja deklarativtminne.

This master thesis aims to examine how public libraries in Sweden are practically and ideologically equipped to deal with e-books, outside of the dominant distributor Elib. The study also aims to find out what’s required of the book market and the public libraries to make further progress in the question of e-books. In Sweden e-books are still representing only a small amount of all the library loans and an even smaller amount of the commercial book market. The methodological and theoretical ground for the thesis is Grounded Theory, and the survey is based on interviews with publishers, librarians and distributors. The conclusions of this thesis are that the public libraries lack resources to invest in e-books, and that they also lack in knowledge about the media and its readers. It also exposes that both internal and external collaboration efforts need to be further developed. In addition to this it also becomes clear that the libraries’ and publishers' digital presence is crucial in their efforts to reach out with literature to the readers. The findings above are closely interwoven with two conceptions of a more abstract kind. The first relates to the issue of the identity of the public library and the question of how they should manage their mission in a still developing digital world. The second concerns the issue of the value of the e-book vs. the value of the printed book. Both publishers and libraries still see the printed book as superior to the e-book, wherefore libraries are reluctant to invest in books that will not be a part of a traditional bookshelf collection. In order to work more actively with the development and further adapt to a future digital society, it is these factors that the book market and the public libraries must work on in order to reach out with literature to the readers. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum Studies.

All pupils have an individual reading development and need different forms of support. The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ experiences of and ideas about the use of easy-reading books when teaching children to read. Data collection was done through four interviews with active teachers representing three schools in a municipality in southern Sweden. The interviewed teachers’ experiences turned out to agree with previous findings: the teachers were favourably disposed towards easy-reading books and considered them important for learning to read. The teachers also thought that it is essential to aim the teaching at the pupils’ own level so that they will develop in their acquisition of literacy. With the help of easy-reading books, pupils who find it hard to learn to read can also be given a chance to develop.

The digital era has led to technical advances that have transformed the role of the public library from being a place that is used only through physical visits and material, into also being a virtual space that can be accessed by users from outside the library through Internet-based access to e-media such as e-books and streamed or downloadable audiobooks. The aim of this study is to examine how the role of public libraries in Stockholm County has changed in the process of developing into digital libraries: how this has affected their organisation, work methods and strate- gies, as well as their accessibility. The theoretical framework of the study draws on Michael K. Bucklands theory of information accessibility, which is based on six factors of access that are determined by different types of barriers. The methodology is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Primary data was gathered through an empirical survey, which consisted of a structured questionnaire distributed to most of the public libraries in Stockholm County and semi-structured interviews with selected librarians and experts for further in-depth understanding. Secondary data in the form of literature and documents were used to inform the study conceptually and theoretically. The results indicate that the digital library has led to increased accessibility of public libraries in Stockholm County supported by the existence of a broad range of e-media types for different types of user such as e-books and streamed or downloadable audiobooks. The use of digital resources has increased significantly amongst users in recent years, which has also resulted in new work methods concerning information- and knowledge mediation in order to make these available. While the digital library has resulted in improved accessibility, the research also confirmed various types of barriers, such as technical difficulties and varying levels of resources to respond changing demands. The research was undertaken for a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This master’s thesis looks at discourses that use the pronoun ”hen”. The media debate in Sweden over this pronoun in 2012 started in connection with the publishing of a children’s picture book: Kivi och monsterhund, by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Jansson. The essay investigates how eight librarians, who take an interest in and work with gender issues, talk about the pronoun hen and about this picture book and other books that have characters which are not named as a sex/gender. The essay takes a discursive perspective on reality and on the construction of knowledge and carries out a discourse analysis of the librarians’ talk in the qualitative interviews that were made for this study. In the analysis of these interviews Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of the gender system takes a central part. The result of the analysis is seven discourses that are central to the librarians talk about books and gender and where the pronoun hen is a focus or a related issue. The essay argues that gender categorization is a dominant discourse in our western society and that certain uses of the pronoun hen, especially the discourse named as the Human-discourse, challenges this domination. The discourses that most librarians used were within the reasoning of the dominant discourse of gender categorization. A conclusion is that the meaning of the pronoun hen is not determined by any one discourse but that there may be a political intervention working towards integrating the pronoun hen into the dominant discourse of gender categorization and thereby neutralising the pronoun.

This master's thesis in Library and Information Science examines how the genre division of the horror fictionis constructed at the children and youth department of a library by studying subject headings of the titles.The aim is to examine what is included in the genre, in the two labelings called vampire and nail-biter/spine-chiller, what separates them, and what difference there is between children and youth thrillers/horror fiction. Also the cover designs and how readers portray these books are studied. The study is made in order to develop the knowledge of the genre to help librarians and borrowers. The great popularity of the genre among borrowers and people in general, and the importance of having knowledge of things that borrowers are interested in, are the motivation of performing the study. The method is a case study and conducted with and based on genre theory which shows how a genre is defined, how it can be divided and what conventions there are for the horror fiction in particular. Discourse analysis helps to see in between what frames the thriller is constructed, and how these elements subdivide the genre and influence it and those who encounter it, library borrowers and librarians. Di-scourse analysis also examines the standards of the thriller.The analysis showed that the discourse of horror fiction includes both the expected features, in terms ofgenre conventions, such as ghosts and vampires, and more commonplace such as sisters. The differences and similarities of these parts in the genre were discussed and compared in the light of discourse analysis and genre theory in order to reveal how these constructions might influence the readers and the borrowers. The major conc-lusions of the study is that the encounter between the unexpected and menacing, and the everyday life is what makes the thriller frightening, now as in history, and so it follows its genre conventions. The discourse of the hor-ror fiction standards are difficult to influence by being expected of borrowers and otherwise they are not thrillers. The study has shown that certain subjects recur more often than other which may affect the borrower in its per-ception of the genre. The genre division helps giving the borrower different kinds of frights and experiences. The joint is that the supernatural is present in the whole genre and convey feelings of excitement and fear which is the most important representative of the genre. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This study examines booktalk, that is, teacher-led group discussions about books for children in a Swedish school. The empirical data comprise 24 hours of videorecorded booktalk in grades 4–7. In total, 40 children (aged 10–14 years) were recorded during 24 sessions. The present approach diverges from previous readerresponse studies in that it draws on authentic data, and in that it examines talk at a micro level, applying an approach from discursive psychology. By focusing on authentic book discussions, the study contributes to the development of readerresponse methods. All eight books applied in the booktalk sessions involved some type of  existential issue: freedom, separation, loyalty, and mortal danger (Chapter 4). Yet, such issues were rarely discussed. An important task of the present thesis was to understand why such issues did not materialise, that is, what did not take place. In Chapter 5, a series of booktalk dilemmas were identified. The booktalk sessions were generally lively and informal. Yet, booktalk as such was often transformed into other local educational projects; e.g. time scheduling, vocabulary lessons or reading aloud exercises. Gender was invoked in all booktalk sessions (Chapter 6). In line with predictions from reader-response theory, progressive texts were, at times, discussed in gender stereotypical ways. The findings also revealed a generational pattern in that the pupils discussed fictive children in less traditional ways than adult characters. The interface between texts and life was invoked in all booktalk sessions (Chapter 7). There was, again, a generational pattern in that children entertained ideas other than those of their teachers concerning legitimate topics in a school context. Also, the discussions revealed a problem of balance between pupils’ privacy, on the one hand, and engaging discussions on texts and life, on the other.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time – in terms of participation and equality – at a specific library. Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study. Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology. Furthermore, Inclusion, a child's perspective, as well as context and gender pedagogy are concepts thoroughly integrated in the analysis and discussion of the results. The main results define the communication and interaction during story time in this specific library. The communication between children and the librarian proved to be dynamic and the use of artefacts was an effective way to stimulate this. The analysis of the results of the developmental process of the story time, indicated that the pedagogical approaches and self-reflection were crucial elements for change. The study's main action was to use a standard challenging book during story time. This proved to be effective in enhancing such self-reflection and for the critical discussion about equality issues. The process itself was also thoroughly visualized in the material. In my conclusion I reflect upon the relationship between the appearance of the communication and the story time context, as well as the relationship between the pedagogical approaches and development. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.