This thesis is an investigation of Iranian immigrants and their use of libraries in Sweden. It isbased on a combination of a qualitative and a·quantitative method.Using a qualitative method, I give an outline of the history of lran from ancient times up to the present, as well as the different ethnological groups in Iran and their cultures. The main objective of this part is to clarify the contrasts between Iranian and Swedish cultural, social, linguistic and family structures, and also the characteristics of the crisis that most immigrants go through on their arrival in the new country. The qualitative method also involves structured telephone interviews with eight highly educated Iranians.This method was supplemented by a quantitative study through questionnaires of the attitudes· of lranian immigrants to libraries and reading. Iranians in Sweden turned out to be frequent Iibrary users. When reading newspapers and journals, they prefer those that are easy to read, e.g. comics, fashion magazines and technological magazines. When reading books, they seem to be more fond of the fine arts and less interested in religious and geographical books than Swedish library users.

The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard. I use a Canadian paper which deals with reading fiction for emotional knowledge written by Catherine Sheldrick Ross. I touch upon two other fields of research; reading in the perspective of gender and reader-response criticism. The method I use is a combination of qualitative interviews, life history method and studies of literature. The study shows that literature of significant meaning is the fictional moods of realism, poetry, romance and detective stories. Particularly memorable books belong to the fictional moods realism and romance. Realism is important for identification, social understanding and social connection. Poetry is read for many reasons among them therapy in crisis. Reading romance appears to be of decisive importance psychologically for women. Detective stories are primarily read for relaxation and escape from reality. Many of the women in the study have been helped by books in different situations in life. / Uppsatsnivå: D

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

The purpose of this master thesis is to show how a chosen actor in form of the Swedish union organization IF Metall (the Swedish union for metal- and industrial workers) works with pro-reading activities. The project being scrutinized is the Read to me dad-project which aims at fathers who are not used to reading activities within the LO-group (the Swedish Trade Union Confederation). The methods used are interviews and literary studies. The theoretical background of my discussion is based on three education ideals. The neo-humanist ideal emphasizes the personal improvement through literature. This ideal has occasionally taken part in the struggle against what is considered to be poor literature. The second education ideal aimed at educating the citizens of a country in democracy and to safeguard the individual’s role as a member of society. The ideal of self-education stands for the free and voluntary. Here it is important that workers also educate themselves and literature is the foremost mean of education. I also look into the education ideal of conscientiousness which was often focused on sobriety and proper behaviour. It also emphasized the idea of educating oneself in order to strengthen and improve the working-class. In my analysis and final discussion I argue that these ideals can be found in a modern pro-reading project such as Read to me dad, but in a more modern way. I bring up the condition of reading ability and habits with emphasis on men within the LO-group. I discuss the statistics and how those alarming figures triggered new pro-reading projects. I also look into barriers standing in the way of reading and discuss what this project can lead to and what maybe will happen in a nearby future. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Using a discourse analytical approach this thesis examines a selection of user reviews concerning Stephenie Meyer’s Young AdultNovel Twilight, published at LibraryThing 2009-07-01 – 2010-12-31. The aim of the study is to identify and shed light upon the conceptions relating to target audiences distinguishable in the reviews and todiscuss the possible consequences of categorizing fiction by age of theintended reader. In order to accomplish this, the study examines the conveyed images of Young Adult fiction and grown ups’ reading of Twilight.The thesis concludes that several discourses regarding Young Adult fiction are distinguishable in the material; some of which concern level, quality, and writing style, others thematic and contentbasedaspects, while one concerns fiction aimed specifically at girls. The thesis also concludes that grown ups’ reading of Twilight is sometimes portrayed as normal and sometimes as abnormal, and that some aspects of the book are made out to be problematic for an older audience while other aspects are made out to be less so.Furthermore the results suggest that discourses which associate a certain kind of content with a certain target group might have a restricting effect upon potential readers. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how a person’s library use and reading can change with time. It also examines how different factors in a person’s context or in the life situation can affect these activities. The analysis is based upon qualitative interviews with three persons, two women and one man between 67 and 69 years of age. The study is conducted with tools from the life history-method, and is construed from a hermeneutic viewpoint. The theoretical starting points are Mieke Bal’s theory of narrative and her concepts of narrative elements, Andersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s concepts that illuminates different ways to use the library and also the concepts about different forms of reading that derives from the SKRIN-project. I have had the opportunity to illustrate how a person’s library use and reading habits can change through life. I cannot see that neither library use nor reading habits follows a certain standardized pattern through life; both activities seem to depend on factors in the environment and in the person’s interests. Different factors also seem to have various importances for different persons and do not always influence two persons in a similar way. Library use and reading habits also had various importance for the persons studied in different periods of their lives. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this paper we will be looking at children’s reading habits, their attitudes towards reading, and whether or not the presence of digital technology such as television or computers have any effect on said reading habits. The material of the study will be collected via group interviews with students at age nine to ten at two different schools in neighbouring towns in the south of Sweden. The parents of the students have all been informed of the study, and approved of their children taking part of it. The purpose of interviewing the students directly, and not to their parents or teachers, is that the chance of them giving relevant and thoughtful answers increase of they are treated as individuals with thoughts and opinions of their own. The study shows that most of the students read with the purpose of school assignments and while most of them don’t mind reading, not many do it for pleasure if there are possibilities of other activities offered instead. Some of these other activities do involve screen time, but many also enjoy being active and spending time with their friends and families.

<p>Denna uppsats baseras på en enkätundersökning bland elever i årskurs 2 i gymnasiet. Den syftar till att undersöka om det finns skillnader i läsvanor och attityder till läsning när det gäller kön, klass och etnicitet. Undersökningen kommer fram till att de stora skillnaderna finns mellan könen. Flickor är mer positivt inställda till läsning än vad pojkar är och de läser mer. Drygt 85 procent av flickorna svarade att de tycker om att läsa, medan endast 47 procent av pojkarna har samma inställning. 70 procent av pojkarna och 20 procent av flickorna angav att de inte läser på fritiden. Mer än dubbelt så många flickor som pojkar läser fler än sju böcker per år. Möjliga förklaringar till detta är att det saknas attraktiv litteratur för tonårspojkar, att pojkar finner det svårt att läsa, och att det anses omanligt att läsa.</p><p>Även klass spelar roll. Den grupp av elever i denna undersökning som läser allra minst är pojkar med lågutbildade föräldrar som går ett yrkesförberedande program. Däremot visar inte undersökningen någon entydig bild av läsvanor när det gäller etnisk bakgrund. En slutsats som kan dras om elever som har ett annat ursprung än svenskt är att de utnyttjar biblioteket mer än andra.</p>

<p>Detta examensarbete belyser vikten av att barn kommer i kontakt med val av böcker inom förskolan. Syftet med studien är att studera hur barn reflekterar kring böcker, vilka faktorer som påverkar deras bokval samt belysa <em>om</em> och <em>hur</em> läsaren och hemmets läsvanor påverkar barns sätt i att uttrycka sig kring böcker. Idag innebär förskolan stora barngrupper för både förskollärare, föräldrar och barn. Detta medför att det blir allt svårare att tillgodose det enskilda barnet i en allt mer växande verksamhet. Idag finns det liten möjlighet för förskollärare att tillgodose samtliga barns intressen även om kraven finns enligt nationella styrdokument. Därför finns det ett intresse i att erhålla kunskaper om hur förskollärare kan anpassa delar av verksamheten i den mån det går efter det individuella barnet när möjligheten väl dyker upp. Ett sätt att anpassa verksamheten till det enskilda barnet är genom att läsa för barnen samt låta dem göra valet av böcker.</p><p>Studien har genomförts genom intervjuer med barn i femårsåldern, två pojkar och tre flickor. Resultatet visar att tydliga könsskillnader finns gällande val av bokgenre, samt att barn i stor utsträckning har en djup förståelse kring böcker. Det framgår även att barn redan vid denna ålder uttrycker en förståelse för hur beroende de är av att vuxna läser för dem. Studien belyser ett tydligt mönster av hur läsvanorna i hemmet ser ut samt visar skillnader gällande vem som barnet helst ser läser för honom/henne.</p>

<p>Avsikten med detta examensarbete är att få en uppfattning om hur elevers läsvanor på fritiden påverkar deras betyg, naturvetenskapliga begreppsförståelse och språkbehandling. En grupp om 75 elever i år 8 fick skriftligt redogöra för sina läsvanor och förmodade höstterminsbetyg i svenska samt i de naturvetenskapliga ämnena. De ombads även förklara några vetenskapliga begrepp och sätta de naturvetenskapliga ämnenas svårighetsgrad i förhållande till övriga ämnen i skolan samt gradera sitt intresse för de olika naturvetenskapliga ämnena.</p><p>Undersökningen visar en varierande kvalitet beträffande elevernas skriftspråk utan egentlig koppling till läsvanor. En majoritet har svårt att förklara de angivna begreppen ens ur vardaglig synvinkel. De elever som inte läser alls eller endast seriemagasin har dock till övervägande delen svaga prestationer i undersökningen och låga betyg, medan kopplingen är tydlig mellan goda läsvanor och höga betyg. I fråga om begreppsförståelse och språkbehandling tycks det inte spela så stor roll om eleven läser ofta eller ibland. Den tyngst vägande förutsättningen verkar istället vara intresse.</p> / <p>The purpose of this diploma work is to investigate how leisure time reading habits of students affect their grades, understanding of concepts of science and language handling. A group of 75 pupils in the 8th grade gave written answers to questions about their reading habits and presumed autumn grades in the subjects Swedish and Science. They were also asked to explain some scientific concepts, compare the difficulty level of science to that of other school subjects and rate their interest in science</p><p>The survey shows a variation in writing skills that has no actual connection to reading habits. The majority fails to explain the given concepts even from an everyday point of view. Students who don’t read at all or only read comic books achieves poor results in the survey as well as low grades and students who read every day achieves high grades. In the matter of understanding of concepts of science and language handling it doesn’t seem to matter whether a student is reading every day or more seldom. It appears that the most important factor in this case is the student’s interest in science.</p>