During the last ten years, PIRLS and PISA have evaluated the reading levels of children and youth around the world, sometimes with grim results. The Swedish evaluation show a constant decline in reading comprehension, and Sweden, which from the start produced one of the best results in the world, have plummeted to the bottom of the ranks. The librarians of the public library have extensive experience of working with different projects engaging children and youth in reading, and so they have a major part to play in this matter. Consequently, the aim of this study is to examine and describe the different perceptions the public librarians have of these projects. Four research questions were formulated, each focusing on the perceptions regarding different aspects of the reading promotion projects. To answer these questions, a phenomenographical approach was adopted and complemented with semi-structured interviews as a means of obtaining empirical data. The results gathered from interviews with six different librarians show that the perceptions of the reading promotion projects share many similarities regarding the motivation, target group and purpose of the projects, but that the librarians relate differently to them. The conclusions drawn from this is, aside from the actual perceptions presented in the study, that the reading promotion projects are very much influenced by the librarians perceptions of them, as the librarians all have different demographic conditions to keep in mind, as well as different experiences of success rates with specific methods. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this investigation is to study how librarians experience bookcrossing. We focused on the two following questions: Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing as literature exchange and reading support activity? Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing compared to other methods of literature exchange and reading support? Bookcrossing is an international book club where you share your books by leaving them at public places. The thesis is focused on librarians’ conceptions and not the conceptions of members of bookcrossing. Fictional literature is central in our investigation. To answer the questions we conducted interviews with nine librarians at eight different libraries. By using a phenomenographical approach our analysis resulted in four categories of description for each question. For the first question the categories were: bookcrossing as publicity, bookcrossing as a new way of thinking, bookcrossing as being democratic and bookcrossing as an activity at the library. The second question resulted in the following four categories: bookcrossing as an alternative to other methods, bookcrossing needs development to be reading supportive, bookcrossing as a non serious event and bookcrossing as a different selection of books. After the second analysis three categories of conceptions emerged: bookcrossing as an advantage for the library, bookcrossing as a problematic method for the library and bookcrossing as unimportant for the library. The conclusion of this study is that librarians do not conceptualise bookcrossing as a good method for reading support. But the majority of them had a positive experience of bookcrossing and they conceptualise that bookcrossing results in positive attention in the media. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine the reading support activities performed by the school libraries of five Swedish upper secondary schools. It focuses upon fiction reading. Two main research questions are asked: the first one in order to find out what kind of ideas of fiction, fiction reading and young people that are held by the librarians of the five libraries, the second one in order to find out what the motives behind the reading support activities are. One additional research question is asked to examine how the librarians estimate the results of the reading support activities, and furthermore how the students seem to respond to them. The research method used is longer, qualitative interviews with altogether five school librarians and one school library assistant. The interviews have later been analyzed, mainly out of two theoretical perspectives: the theories of fiction reading with young students by Louise Rosenblatt, and the theory of young people’s cultural behaviour in late modern society by Thomas Ziehe. The result of the analysis shows that the librarians’ view of young people is foremost flexible, and that they adjust their approach to individual students as well as to their own method of working. The motives behind the reading support activities seem to be both personal and related to educational goals of the school organisation. The librarians reading support activities are often well received by the students and also have positive implications for their schooling.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how libraries use thetools and ideas from library 2.0 in their reading promotionwork. We also want to include how librarians motivate thisuse and whatever merits and faults they encounter. We haveperformed document studies and interviews which we thenanalyzed with qualitative content analysis. Our theoreticframework in this study which we also used as a part of ourcoding scheme in the analysis was a model over the conceptlibrary 2.0 developed by Holmberg, Huvila, Kronquist-Bergand Widén-Wulff. This model describes seven aspects oflibrary 2.0 which is users, participation, library and libraryservice, web and web 2.0, social aspects, technology andinteractivity. We can see that there is a multitude of toolsthat can be connected to library 2.0 and reading promotionbeing used by the libraries we investigated. The library toolswe found most relevant for our study where blogs, useradvice, catalogue and chat. Even if the libraries could offerthese tools there were widespread issues with low userparticipation. We think this may remove the possibilities forthe tools. The web sites with high user participation had astrong focus on the social aspect among the users andlibrarians. We think this may be of importance but requirefurther research. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the phenomenon called bookcrossing. To fulfill this I have asked the following research questions: Why do people participate in bookcrossing?What functions do books have for bookcrossers? The method used is qualitative, semi structured interviews. Four active bookcrossers have been interviewed. These interviews revealed that bookcrossing as an activity in a medium sized town is very small. It also revealed that many of the books that the respondents place out are never registered on the website, and probably get picked up by people who do not understand the concept of bookcrossing. Theories by Tveit and Ross have been used on the social function of books, and reading as a social activity. The results confirm the notion presented by Ross et. al, that reading is becoming an increasingly social and collective activity. One of the lessons learned from this study is that bookcrossing activity probably is greater in bigger cities. If a bigger city had been investigated, the result may have been much different. For bookcrossing to function well it probably requires a large population to draw from. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how public librarians inspire children aged 9-12 years through book clubs. The study is based on five semi-structured phone interviews with leaders of book clubs. I made a qualitative content analysis of the interviews. In the interviews we focused on how they planned, performed their work, possibilities they could see, and finally challenges to be considered. This was later analysed from the perspective of Chambers theory of the reading circle, which he presents in his study Tell me : children, reading and talk . This theory shows the process of how children, with the adult’s support, can choose, read and react to literature. My conclusions based on the study are that the public librarians want the children's experience of the book club to be fun and not remind them of school. It’s a place where they can meet others and discuss literature they’ve been reading.

<p>Syftet med detta examensarbete är att belysa begreppet och företeelsen läsprojekt och att undersöka varför lärare väljer att arbeta med och i läsprojekt. </p><p>Första delen består av textstudier där begreppet och företeelsen sätts in i ett historiskt och samhälleligt sammanhang och där definitioner görs. </p><p>Andra delen består av resultat från fältundersökningar och intervjuer och beskriver hur tre sinsemellan mycket olika läsprojekt i grundskolan ser ut och vad de inblandade lärarna tycker om sina läsprojekt. </p><p>I diskussionen konstateras att läsprojekt har rötter både i den reformpedagogiska traditionen och i ett engagemang för läsning från samhällets sida, men att läsprojekten inte har någon fast och given form. </p><p>Slutsatsen som dras är att lärarna väljer att arbeta med och i läsprojekt, eftersom de likt en sol lyser upp skolvardagen för både lärare och elever och därför upplevs som mycket stimulerande.</p>

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att belysa begreppet och företeelsen läsprojekt och att undersöka varför lärare väljer att arbeta med och i läsprojekt. Första delen består av textstudier där begreppet och företeelsen sätts in i ett historiskt och samhälleligt sammanhang och där definitioner görs. Andra delen består av resultat från fältundersökningar och intervjuer och beskriver hur tre sinsemellan mycket olika läsprojekt i grundskolan ser ut och vad de inblandade lärarna tycker om sina läsprojekt. I diskussionen konstateras att läsprojekt har rötter både i den reformpedagogiska traditionen och i ett engagemang för läsning från samhällets sida, men att läsprojekten inte har någon fast och given form. Slutsatsen som dras är att lärarna väljer att arbeta med och i läsprojekt, eftersom de likt en sol lyser upp skolvardagen för både lärare och elever och därför upplevs som mycket stimulerande.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine how children's librarians work with younger children with language disorders. We want to explore how children's librarians can support and stimulate the language of the children's development and what difficulties they might find. Children with different types of disabilities is a prioritized group according to the Swedish library law but previous studies have shown that children's librarians express an uncertainty in the interactions with children with disabilities. We used qualitative interviews as a data collection method. Five children's librarians who participates in a project called Språklust have been interviewed. In that project the children's librarians work together with speech therapists. Säljö’s sociocultural theory has been used as a theoretical framework. According to Säljö’s concepts, this study shows that cooperation between the children's librarians and other professions helps the children's librarians to reach and work with the children. The children's librarians have an important role when it comes to inspire caregivers to read with their children and to encourage them to talk about the books. One of the difficulties is that the children's librarians are dependent on the speech therapists and it is of importance that the cooperation functions or else there is a risk the children with language disorders will not come to the libraries.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur några bibliotekarier ser på samarbetet mellan folkbiblioteket och skolan angående deras likvärdiga läsfrämjande arbete kring barn och unga. Metoderna vi valt att använda oss av är en enkätundersökning och att se över biblioteksplanerna för de kommuner studien berör. Vi har i enkäten valt att använda oss av både öppna och stängda frågor då vi vill undersöka bibliotekariernas perspektiv på samarbetet. Resultatet vi kommit fram till är att samarbetet ser väldigt olika ut i kommunerna men även att folkbibliotekens riktlinjer är väldigt otydliga för hur samarbetet ska se ut eller inte. Många skolor saknar skolbibliotek och använder därmed folkbiblioteket som resurs till skolan vilket även flera folkbibliotek uttrycker att de inte är deras jobb att assistera skolorna.