The main aim of this thesis is to study how and in which way the library personnel works with reading groups and their view of reading groups. I also want to study which role the governing- and policy documents have in the library personnel’s work. The following questions were asked.Which similarities and differences between the different library personals outlooks and acting can be interpreted from the following aspects:• Promoting reading, book selections and the leader's role?• To talk about personal subjects and to create possibilities for personal growth and increased empathy?• To promote language development and reading comprehension?The methods used in the study are a combination of interviews and observations. Aidan Chamber's “three ingredients in a talk" and “the teachers' four main tasks” during reading groups; recommendations of the promotion of reading and its obstacles that originates from Eriksson Barajas' studies over reading groups in school is used as a theoretical framework.The conclusions showed that the library personnel thought that it was important to make it possible for all the children to talk and that there are limitations for how many goals you could have for a reading group. The personnel of the school libraries let the children choose more books for themselves than the childrens' librarians. All the library personnel related the text to our reality, which gave the children preconditions for self-insight. Several of the library personnel gave the children possibility’s to exercise reading between the lines ore to predict the synopses. If the informants who held in reading groups during the children’s school time had summarized, they would've had a clearer connection to the requirements of knowledge in Swedish. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine virtual reading groups, and which meaning the users perceive that the virtual reading groups offer. In addition, the study inquires which details can be improved to further amend the needs and wants among the users of virtual reading groups. Through these outlines, it is discussed how libraries and librarians can make use of virtual reading groups as a resource. The study is based upon qualitative interviews, consisting of asynchronous e-mail interviews with a total of sixteen members in two different virtual reading groups. The theoretical frames are taken from theories within the research field of reading, ideas about virtual communities and identity construction. The result of the essay shows that the virtual reading groups seem to serve an important role as virtual arenas, where people can come together and discuss their common interest in reading and books. For some of the users, virtual reading groups have a social quality, but it is not a capacity that all of the users experience or even aim at with their membership. Moreover, details that can be improved are said to be the layout on the sites, solutions of technical problems and marketing. For libraries, virtual reading groups can be a useful complement to other services that they offer, since it is a free resource that makes it possible for librarians to meet their patrons and to reach out to new groups through an access on the Internet. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This master thesis examines online reading groups with swedish participants. The aim is, by way of introduction, to investigate what kind of online reading groups that exist and how they work. The overall question of the thesis is: how do a conversation about books on the Internet look like? The theory used is Grounded Theory and this is a methodology which has influenced the hole structure of the study. Grounded Theory apply that issues and hypothesis must be created from the collected material, and the author collected for this reason material in the form of survey answers, email-conversations, blogmaterial and articles to draw up exact issues based on this material. The material was sorted into four different categories; social reading, reading fellowship, virtual freedom and anonymity and the issues were formulated according to this categories. The results of the study shows that conversations about books exists in many places on the Internet, such as on blogs and on book forums. Online reading group as a term made it difficult to include such other conversations in the study even though they worked almost as reading groups. Online reading groups is according to the author just one part of a big reading movement on the web. Another result of the study was that it seemed as members of online reading groups has changed their way of how to discuss books, meaning they discuss the reading experience not only after they have read the book but also while they are reading. This tendency is in this thesis explained as a result of the everyday use of social media, where people are now used to update as often as several times per day. The term virtual freedom includes the freedom to take part in a conversation independent of time and geography, but also a freedom to have the possibility to stay anonymous. Virtual freedom and anonymity is discussed by means of the term fellowship, and fellowship is discussed by means of the term social reading which is the core variable of this thesis.

Bibliotherapy as a concept and method has in recent years become increasingly established where, among other things, courses in bibliotherapy have been started. However, there is an uncertainty about the concept of bibliotherapy where some librarians are reluctant to call themselves a therapist. The aim of this study is to investigate how the concept of “bibliotherapy” is portrayed in the library sector´s journals. To do so I used discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological foundation. When it comes to the method, I used selected discourse analytical concepts taken from Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe´s discourse theory. The empirical material of the study consists of articles from three library journals that address bibliotherapy and Shared Reading. The results of this study show how the methods in bibliotherapy differ and how this in turn creates various views when it comes to the choice of literature, the role of literature and which participants the bibliotherapy is aimed at. The study also shows that there is an ambivalence among librarians when it comes to the therapy part of bibliotherapy and that they have established different strategies for dealing with this ambivalence. When it comes to the role of libraries and bibliotherapy, the empirical material shows that it is mainly reading promotion that is mentioned as one of the main reasons why libraries should be interested in bibliotherapy. Finally, the study shows that Shared Reading, with its similarities and differences when it comes to library therapy, seems to have created a more stable foundation for its discourse compared to bibliotherapy. In the discourse on bibliotherapy, clarifying what the therapy part entails could be beneficial for those who feel uncertain about bibliotherapy and to work as a bibliotherapist.

The aim of this master‟s thesis is to investigate the value and impact that reading groups organized by Swedish Public Libraries, have on its participants, role of the librarian and the Library as whole, according to librarian‟s conceptions. In literature and earlier research reading groups are described to represent an important reader pro-motion tool for Public Libraries. At the same time the typical reading group member is often described as a per-son with a familiarity of reading. Another purpose is therefore to investigate the contribution of reading groups in promoting reading, according to librarian‟s conceptions. A phenomenographic approach was adopted and qualit-ative interviews were carried out with five librarians at five Public Libraries. The phenomenographic analysis of the interview-material, concerning reading groups impact on its partici-pants and the Library as a whole, resulted in the following categories: reading groups perceives as a natural part of the Public Library service, reading groups inspirer to reading and literature interest, reading groups leads to human interactions and shared reading experiences, reading groups has a democratic function, limitations of reading groups and reading groups part in reading promotion. Comparisons have also been made to how reading groups fit the Public Library task, as it is described in Swedish Library law and Unesco‟s Public Library manifes-to. The analysis of the interview-material shows that reading groups in many ways fit the task of Public Library service, like promoting literature and reading, supporting individual development and be available to everyone. The phenomenographical analysis of the interview-material, concerning the librarian‟s part in reading groups, resulted in the following categories: administrator, educator, social inspirer and competence and interest for fiction. Comparisons are also made to Jofrid Karner Smidts thesis concerning the five different roles a libra-rian should fulfill working with literature promotion. Based on her thesis it´s foremost the librarian as a critic and literature expert, educator and as ordinary person that correspond with the interviewed librarians perceptions about what part they play and should play in reading groups. One distinct conception that transpired in the interview-material is that reading groups organized by Swe-dish Public Libraries do not necessarily have a specific reading promotion purpose, but that reading groups have potential to have a positive impact on the participants reading habits. Further that more active work from the librarians is required, in order to fulfill a reading promotion function. One of this thesis most important conclu-sions is that there seems to exist a need to make the literature-promotion task of Public Libraries more visible, that it is important that librarians is given the opportunity to develop their competence to fulfill this task and that reading groups can fulfill an important aspect in that context. This study is a two years master´s thesis in library and information science.

Introduction: The first aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about why public libraries choose to organize reading groups for adults. The second aim is to shed light on the possible transformative potential of public libraries’reading groups for adults. Method: Semi-structured interviews with six librarians at Bibliotek Uppsala were conducted. Three of the librarians had an overall responsibility for the reading group activities within the organization. The other three librarians led reading groups themselves. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Analysis: A thematic content analysis was conducted to interpret the transcripts of the interviews.  Results: The librarians’ thoughts regarding what participants can gain from reading groups were categorized within the following themes: They can inspire more or more extensive reading, they can promote democracy and participation, they can encourage people to meet and fulfill an important social function, they can promote health, personal growth, and can give the participants new perspectives. This is largely consistent with previous studies reagarding what participants themselves state reading groups contribute to their lives. The result further shows that there are many favorable conditions for transformative learning within the library’s reading groups. Conclusion: The librarians see that the reading groups can fulfill more functions than promoting reading. Among other things, they point out that the reading groups, for several different reasons, are in line with the library’s democratic mission. Based on the theory of transformative learning, it is possible to see the potential of reading grups to promote critical reflection. According to the theory of transformative learning, it is believed that it is of the utmost importance that citizens of democratic societies develop their critical thinking. Thus, reading groups that develop the participants' ability to reflect could therefore also be justified on the basis of the library's democracy mission.   This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The purpose of this thesis was to, in a selected municipality, examine the position of bibliotherapy in reading groups in public libraries. To attain the purpose of the thesis the following questions were asked; What opinions does the librarians in the existing reading groups have on bibliotherapy? What kind of bibliotherapeutic elements exist in the investigated reading groups? Can the reading groups have bibliotherapeutic elements regardless if they were planned for such purposes? Could bibliotherapy be relevant to the public libraries work with the target group mental disabilities in accordance to library law? As a method seven semi-structured qualitative scientific interviews were conducted alongside one web survey. Six of the interviews were implemented with librarians in public libraries and one with two trained bibliotherapists at a hospital library. The theory used was Elizabeth Brewster’s development of Caroline Shrode’s three phases identification, catharsis and insight, where bibliotherapy is divided into four overlapping kinds of bibliotherapy: emotive bibliotherapy, informative bibliotherapy, social bibliotherapy and escapist bibliotherapy. The results show that there are distinct observations of Shrodes three phases in one of the reading groups that fit the description of Brewsters emotive bibliotherapy. In the librarians’ description of the rest of the reading groups, several elements of social, informative and escapist bibliotherapy can also be found. However, in those groups a clear identification of Shrodes theoretical phases are much more elusive, even if there are some similarities. The reading groups’ content of bibliotherapeutic elements appears to be, to some extent, independent of the librarians’ knowledge of bibliotherapeutic terms and denominations. Bibliotherapeutic work seems to be close to unknowingly performed by the librarians in the reading groups, which none the less does not seem to affect its efficiency. Further knowledge about bibliotherapy is assessed to be beneficial to the reading groups in public libraries, which in turn would contribute to the fulfilling of the goals in library law.