Thesis PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--La Salle University, 2005. / ProQuest dissertations and theses ; AAT 3227733. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-65)

This thesis examines the literature promotion towards adults in an established literary magazine. The basis for the study are the different surveys noting the decline in the populations reading and writing abilities. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the attitudes towards, and images of, reading and literature appearing i the magazine Vi Läser, from 2011 to 2015. The research questions are concerned with the beliefs and perceptions in regards to reading that Vi Läser convey, and what aspects of literature the magazine emphasizes. As a theoretical basis the critical discourse analysis as formulated by the linguist Norman Fairclough has been utilized. It is supplemented with Pierre Bordieus work on social differentiation and the theory of reading dimensions outlined by Sten Furhammar. A close reading has been applied to the selected issues of Vi Läser, whereby three dominant discourses has been made visible. These are termed ”the prestige discourse”, ”the utility discourse” and ”the pleasure discourse”. The studys findings are put in relation to the relevant discursive and social practices. The discursive practice examined is the realm of printed journals. This proved to be marked by a variety of approaches towards reading, and it was found that the discourses prevalent in Vi Läser constituted only a small selection of the mediated images of the activity. The social practice of interest is the realm of the public library. The findings illustrate a considerable congruence between the images of reading promoted in Vi Läser to that of official documents and reports. At the same time, it is stated that adults are a low priority in the context of the public library. Vi Läsers literature promotion is considered to have an important role to play in this regard. Finally, it is suggested that public libraries embrace Vi Läsers pleasure discourse in its literature promotion towards adults. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum Studies.

Although digital media has been exploited to improve digital libraries, social networking sites, and book promotion for adult and child stakeholders, but encouraging children who have the choice to either read from a book or on a screen remains limited worldwide, including Jordan. This interest has meant that data about children's reading habits were needed, and the present study was intended as a contribution towards this aim. Interviews were conducted with Jordanian writers, publishers, child specialists, and various children's cultural centres. The managers and personnel unanimously showed that Jordanian children are not good readers and that a limited number of books are published for children as there are actual boundaries preventing Jordanian writers from publishing books. In particular, subjecting the typical sorts of children's websites - 'Club Penguin', 'PBS Kids', 'A Story before Bed', 'Baraem', 'Storyline Online', and 'Raneen' - to evaluation showed that 'Club Penguin' got the highest rank among the other websites in terms of multimodal features, usability, and language, while 'PBS Kids' got the highest rank regarding interactivity, and 'A Story before Bed' got the highest rank in reading activities. Although it was realised that most children were satisfied with the aspects of usability and ease of use rather than the structure or the aesthetic of the website, and were more attracted to the websites that provide multimodal features such as special characters, narration, gesture, and interactivity. The targeted websites' parameters obtained from the survey were used as guidance in the design structure of the KITABAK website, as a virtual reading environment for children's reading practices. The evaluation results that were obtained showed that there is a significant correlation towards encouraging children's reading habits and reading from printed books accompanying the website; girls showed more interest in reading iv than boys; and there is an obvious willingness for the adaptation of the website as a part of the Jordanian school curriculum. In addition, the KITABAK website was accepted significantly more than 'Club Penguin', mainly because the KITABAK website has facilities, games and reading activities. Also, results showed that children who were subjected to testing the KITABAK website for a one-week period proved to accept the website significantly more than those who were subjected to testing it once.

The thesis explores the reception of the works of the Scottish Enlightenment in provincial Scotland, broadly defined, aiming to gauge their diffusion in the libraries of private book collectors and 'public' book-lending institutions, and to suggest the meanings and uses that contemporary Scottish readers assigned to major texts like Hume's History of England and Smith's Wealth of Nations. I thereby acknowledge the relevance of more traditional quantitative approaches to the history of reading (including statistical analysis of the holdings of contemporary book collections), but prioritise the study of sources that also allow us to access the 'hows' and 'whys' of individual reading practices and experiences. Indeed, the central thrust of my work has been the discovery and interrogation of large numbers of commonplace books, marginalia, diaries, correspondence and other documentary records which can be used to illuminate the reading experience itself in an explicit attempt to develop an approach to Scottish reading practices that can contribute in comparative terms to the burgeoning field of the history of reading. More particularly, such sources allow me to assess the impact that specific texts had on the lives, thought-processes and values of a wide range of contemporary readers, and to conclude that by reading these texts in their own endlessly idiosyncratic ways, consumers of literature in Scotland assimilated many of the prevalent attitudes and priorities of the literati in the major cities. Since many of the most important and pervasive manifestations of Enlightenment in Scotland were not particularly Scottish, however, I also cast doubt on the distinctive Scottishness of the prevailing 'cultural' definition of the Scottish Enlightenment, arguing that such behaviour might more appropriately be considered alongside cultural developments in Georgian England.

The purpose of this project is to develop a resource of techniques using children's literature which will increase interest in reading for students who have met the minimum standards of reading for their grade level. The completed curriculum is to be used in grades kindergarten through six, with a flexible time limit of thirty to forty-five minutes per day, for fifteen school days.