The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight into the thoughts and views of child librarians regarding the gift book that is given to all newborn children in Gothenburg. The gift book is intended to inspire parents to read and sing to their child and by doing so stimulate his or her language development, wich has benefits for the child's later literacy skills. In 2015, only about 40 percent of the families given theg ift card fetched their book at a public library. The focus of the study is how librarians view the giftbook and how they think that the project could be improved to reach more families. The empirical material consists of interviews with six childlibrarians employed at public libraries in Gothenburg. The theoretical perspective is that of marketing, and the results of the interviews were analyzed using the model of the marketing mix' fourP:s: product, price, place and promotion. The findings show that the librarians find the components product and price the most problematic. Requested improvements include complementing material for families with other first languages than Swedish, more qualitative evaluation, and more time and resources to do more outreach activities. The results also show that a lack of ownership of the giftbook project on the part of the librarians may influence their level of engagement, which in the end may influence their ability to communicate the importance of the gift book to the target audience.

The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis is to investigate children’s librarians professional identity and its relation to the changes due to the covid-19 crisis. The focus is on reading promotion for children since it is an important part of a children’s librarian’s profession, and because it went through a fast and emence change during the covid-19 crisis. The qualitative interview study consisted of semi-structured interviews to explore the perspectives of five children’s librarians. The expressed experiences of the respondents were categorized theoretically using content analysis. The foundation for the interpretation was the model of Ørom (1993) and Schreiber (2006). The interviews revealed that the children’s librarians professional identities consists of many aspects. The three professional identities that appears most clearly with the respondents before the pandemic are the cultural mediator- and social worker identity (Ørom, 1993) and the experience mediator identity (Schreiber, 2006). The way the children’s librarians describe how they adapted their reading promotion during the covid-19 crisis shows their professional identity in relation to the changes during the pandemic. The interviews revealed that though the respondents were mostly drawn to the same identities as before the pandemic, they were now also drawn to the information mediator identity. The model used was not sufficient to describe the innovation that took place among the interviewed children’s librarians due to the pandemic. I have therefore created a new category that is called the innovative identity, that shows the new thinking and power of initiative that the respondents displayed during the pandemic.

The aim of this thesis was to gain insight into how children's librarians, at public libraries, work to promote reading towards children between the ages of 6 and 16. The two main purposes were to study the view of reading and investigate how they   approach the multimodal world where digital media and tools make a complement to traditional media and how the work with  them can be related to reading motivation.  The methods used in this study were semi structured interviews and qualitative content analysis. Five children's librarians were interviewed. To analyze the responses from the interviews, we used a motivational theory to study how motivational factors are used in reading promotion. We also used a theory which includes different views of reading. Our results show that the view of reading reflects how the librarians perform their reading promotion. The respondents are mostly positive to both traditional and digital media and tools. They appreciate various media and tools and tend to use several formats. One of the respondents describes her work, with different media to promote reading, in terms of “having a toolkit to work with” and that different media inspire the use of another. The study also shows that motivation is an important factor to be considered in the work of reading promotion. Motivation can, for example, be reached within the children’s and young adults´ own interests and the media formats that they prefer.

The purpose of the study is to identify children’s librarians' approaches to children and children's theatre when reasoning about the purchase and selection of children’s theatre, and the view of children that can then be expressed. Questions posed are: What approaches to children’s theatre do children’s librarians express? What view of children do the identified approaches express? The theoretical framework consists of three approaches to reading translated into a theatrical context. The three approaches are pragmatic, traditional and emancipatory. The study is also based on the view of children as beings and becomings. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five children’s librarians and analysed through a qualitative content analysis. The results show that the librarians express several approaches to children’s theatre. Children’s theatre can aim to be an experience and a fun moment, but also make children reflect and develop their critical thinking. As well as to provide knowledge and conveying messages. The theatre performances can also be a way of educating children in the art form and fostering them into the theatre tradition. The results show that the approaches the children’s librarians express are not direct opposites of each other. A theatre performance can, for example, aim to be both experience-focused and at the same time evoke thoughts and reflections. The study also shows that the identified approaches express both a view of children as actors in their own right, but also a view of children as future adults.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how children's librarians at public librarieswork to promote reading towards children between the ages of 8-12 and to see if theirreading promotion only consists of printed fiction. The research questions for the thesisare the following: • How do the children's librarian conduct their reading promotion work? • How do children's librarians use different kinds of media in the readingpromotion work? • Which methods do children's librarians use in the reading promotion work? The purpose has been achieved and the research questions has been answered throughresearch interviews with children's librarians who work at public libraries. To analyzethe responses from the interviews, we have used a theory about different approachestowards reading and Jofrid Karner Smidt's theory of the librarian as a mediator ofliterature. The conclusions of the thesis are that there are great similarities in how thechildren’s librarians we have interviewed work with reading promotion and what kindof reading-promoting methods they use.

A vivid democracy requires participation from those who live in it, including children. Unlike adults, children have special laws and regulations to ensure them their democratic rights. Librarians’ decision on what to buy makes an impact to someone else, which puts the librarian in a hegemonic position. Therefore, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to, out of the child librarian’s perspective, view children’s participation at the public library in the matter of purchasing literature. The research questions examine the process of purchasing, how the children’s participation is apparent in it and also in the librarian’s work. The aim for this study is not to problematize the purpose nationwide, but simply to look into it in a smaller selection. Therefore the interviews have been limited to two and have been conducted with children’s librarians who operate in similar contexts. The results have been analyzed out of the theories concerning the librarian profession, the aspects of hegemony and participation using sense interpretation as an analysis. The results have shown that children’s participation is seen as important by the librarians but not always easy to implement. Also, they acknowledge the fact that publishing houses do have the power to decide what to release and not. As a link between politicians, the society and the publishers, the librarian is placed in an intermediate position which demands a great deal of competence. Furthermore, working on this study has shown that research on children’s participation from the children’s own perspective is needed.

The purpose of this study is to examine, through qualitative interviews, how children's librarians see the child's perspective as well as how this is reflected in the reference work of the children's librarian. To do this we have asked the following questions: How does the librarian see the perspective of children? How do they perceive the balance of power between themselves and the patron in question? And how do they feel that the Convention on the Rights of the Child influences their work? We have chosen this approach since the Convention on the Rights of the Child has become part of Sweden's legislation and also, due to the criticism that previously has been directed to the children's libraries ability to put the treaty into practice. Results show that children's librarians do not in fact use a distinctive children's perspective when carrying out their duties as a librarian and during reference talks but in turn use a widened individual perspective where the child is included. At the same time librarians experience that there are clear distinctions between children and adults that are important to bear in mind and be able to discern during a reference talk in order to meet the patrons' on their terms. The differences in power between children and adults at the libraries are however something that the interviewed took a negative stance towards, meaning that children should be respected as individuals and that it is the librarians duty to make sure that they feel heard and understood through their own behavior and also defending the interests of the child enabling them to feel a sense of empowerment in the confines of the library as well as in society. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was something the librarians were positive towards, but they saw it more as something that decision makers were more influenced by rather than something influencing the treatment of the patron and reference talks.