The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the indexing of fiction for adults looks like in the public libraries that don’t buy indexed records for fiction from Bibliotekstjänst (BTJ). The questions that I want these libraries to answer is: - Public libraries that index fiction for adults themselves: 1. What tools do they use when indexing?, 2. How do they proceed when indexing?, 3. How do they experience that indexing works in practice?, 4. How large knowledge of Svensk Biblioteksförening’s subject headings list for adults do they have? - Public libraries that don’t index fiction for adults: 1. What factors lie behind the decision not to index?, 2. Do they have plans to either start indexing themselves or to start buying indexed records?, 3. How large knowledge of Svensk Biblioteksförening’s subject headings list for adults do they have?The study showed that in libraries that index themselves, many use Svensk Biblioteksförening’s subject headings list. They use the binding lists from BTJ and the text on the back cover of the book when choosing index terms and they think that indexing is interesting, useful but that it takes time. The libraries that don’t index say that it is lack of time or staff that has made them take that decision. Half of these libraries say that they will start buying indexed records or do the indexing by themselves. In both types of libraries the knowledge of Svensk Biblioteksförening’s subject headings list is basic or good. / Uppsatsnivå: D

BAKGRUND: Pojkars eftersläpande läsutveckling är empiriskt konstaterad, och upplevs avoss som bekymmersam ur demokratisk synvinkel. Forskning rörande pojkarsläsutveckling presenteras, liksom forskning som behandlar förutsättningarnaför läsutveckling mer generellt. Den valda teoretiska ramen är detsociokulturella perspektivet på lärande.SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur pedagoger i förskoleklass respektiveskola arbetar med skönlitteratur med särskilt intresse för pojkars medverkan.Frågeställningarna behandlar vilka inslag av reflekterande läsning som finns iklassrummen, i vilken utsträckning de gynnar pojkar samt pedagogersuppfattningar kring pojkars kontra flickors läsning.METOD: Den genomförda undersökningen är en kvalitativ studie med inspiration frånden etnografiska ansatsen. Studien grundar sig på nio observationer i ensjätteklass respektive en förskoleklass, och på fem förberedda samt tvåoförberedda intervjuer med de inblandade pedagogerna.RESULTAT: Resultatet visar att samtal i anslutning till högläsning genomfördes medbarnen i läsutvecklande syfte, och en variation kunde urskiljas beträffandehur aktiva pedagogerna respektive eleverna var i dem. I de samtal där eleverlämnades stort utrymme att lägga fram sina uppfattningar var de flestaeleverna passiva. Pojkarnas bidrag till diskussionerna var ringa, då flertaletav dem förhöll sig till läsningen genom att uttrycka sitt missnöje medbokvalet eller genom att inte uttrycka sig alls.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to study if teenage fiction, published in Swedish during the course of one year, matches what boys in eight grade claim they want to read about. The background for our work is a survey initiated by Lärarnas Riksförbund, Läsa för att lära, in 2005. The conclusion drawn in Läsa för att lära is that many children, especially boys, lose their interest in reading when they become teenagers. Information on fictional books for teenagers has been collected from Bibliotekstjänst. To establish what boys want to read about we have handed out questionnaires to 62 students in grade eight. In order to gain understanding on teenage reading we have studied the theories of Joseph A. Appleyard, presented in his book Becoming a reader. His research shows that identification and realism are two important factors for teenage readers as well as finding a book that will “make them think”. Our results show that fictional books published in the genres ”everyday-life” and ”misery lit” are most common, followed closely by “fantasy”. The first two categories were of little interest to our students. “Fantasy”, however, was a genre they liked. The results also show that humoristic books were most popular, followed by books on “war” and “sports”. Our conclusion is that the supply from BTJ in 2007 of fictional books (for teenagers), does not really match what the boys in our study claim they want to read about, with the exception of “fantasy”.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate the reading habits of six men who do not read fiction. The reason for my interest is the fact that men statistically read less fiction than women, and that there are few existing studies of this subject. The study investigates why these men do not read fiction, their attitudes towards literature, their reading habits, their leisure-time interests and if they experience fiction from other activities. Furthermore the study includes a discussion of whether or not there might be a connection between the men’s reading habits and their identity as men, as well as a discussion of all of the above in relation to their social background. The study is built on qualitative interviews among six men. The theories used to analyse the results have emanated from the research of Elaine Millard, showing that boys view reading as an activity for women, as well as from Sten Furhammar’s model for reading preferences. The result shows that the men often read for utilitarian purposes. They read to acquire knowledge, which they think fiction cannot provide. Some of them stress the lack of habit to read fiction. Some indicate that fiction is for women. The importance for some of the men that reading should be useful, might be attributable to their male identity. One of the respondents differs from the others since he previously used to read a great deal of fiction, but stopped a few years ago. This study shows a considerable relationship between parental encouragement to read and/or social background and the men’s reading habits as adults. / Uppsatsnivå: D

BAKGRUND:Här ger vi läsaren en bakgrund i vad tidigare forskning och vad våra styrdokument säger kringden skönlitterära läsningen i skolan.SYFTE:Vårt huvudsyfte är att ta reda på hur pedagoger talar om att de använder skönlitterär läsning iundervisningen. Med hjälp av delfrågorna: Vilken litteratur läser man i skolan? Hur serpedagogerna på relationen mellan skönlitteratur och lärande? Hur samarbetar skolan medbiblioteket och hemmet?METOD:Vi har en kvalitativ metod inspirerad av fenomenografi. Vi har intervjuat 10 pedagoger för atthöra deras uppfattning kring skönlitterär läsning och hur de använder sig av den.RESULTAT:Pedagogerna anser att skönlitterär läsning i skolan är av stor vikt. Det är något de användersig av och något de tycker är viktigt både ur ett kunskapsperspektiv och ur ett lustfylltperspektiv. Det förekommer skönlitterär läsning på flera olika sätt, gemensamt, enskilt,högläsning, tyst läsning och så vidare. Pedagogernas personliga kunskaper och intressenpåverkar läsandet. / Uppsatsnivå: C

BAKGRUND: Under vår tid här på Högskolan i Borås har vi läst mycket omskönlitteratur i svenskämnet i relation till meningsfullt och lustfylltlärande. Bilden som vi tycker är vag i detta sammanhang är hurpedagogerna arbetar med skönlitteratur. Därför tyckte vi att det voreintressant att undersöka samt försöka göra bilden tydligare. Vi harfunnit mycket forskning inom området vilket vi redogör för ibakgrunden.SYFTE: Vårt syfte är att undersöka variationen av hur skönlitteratur användsav pedagoger i undervisning för grundskolans tidigare år.METOD: Vi har valt att utföra vår undersökning med hjälp av redskapet selfreport.RESULTAT: Vår undersökning visar att det finns en bred variation i pedagogernasbeskrivningar om hur de använder sig av skönlitteratur. Främstanvänder sig pedagogerna av högläsning och tyst läsning men även avskönlitteratur som material för att integrera olika skolämnen för atteleverna ska få en djupare kunskap. / Uppsatsnivå: C

This Master’s thesis is connected to an interdisciplinary field between humanities and health care; “humanistic medicine” or “humanistic nursing”. The object of the investigation is nursing students’ experiences of reading fiction and autobiographies as course literature. In semi-structured interviews a group of students talk about their reading. A central issue is whether there is a difference in the way the students describe their reading of fiction during the nursing programme compared with their statements about their reading of other more scientific texts. Another question is if reading of fiction and autobiographies makes it possible for nursing students to develop compassion and empathy and if this has any impact, in the students’ opinion, on their future meetings with patients? According to Nussbaum and Rosenblatt the reading of fiction, especially novels, provides readers with the opportunity to identify and sympathize with narrative characters. These abilities could help the reader to understand the needs and aspirations of other human beings. The theoretical framework in the analysis of the interviews is based upon Nussbaum’s and Rosenblatt’s theories concerning the reader-text relation. The result of the investigation is that it is possible to understand nursing students’ explanations about what the reading of this special fictional course literature means to them in correlation with these theories. Reading fiction during nurse training gives insight and knowledge about individual experiences of illness and can, according to the informants, be a help in understanding future patients.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to study how public librarians’ view mediation of fiction: the knowledge needed, the thoughts expressed about their own and other adults reading of fiction and how the informants define their roles as mediators of fiction. The method used was qualitative interviews with six librarians at main libraries in Swedish cities of different sizes. The theoretical starting points are Louise M. Rosenblatt’s reader-response theory, Michail Bachtin’s theory of speech genres and Åse Tveit’s and Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theories about mediation of fiction. For the empirical material concerning the librarians knowledge in this field of the library work the theory of three different kinds of knowledge; episteme, techne and phronesis, was applied. Furthermore, the term communities of practice was used regarding how the knowledge is acquired. The results show that reading is regarded an important activity with various functions, which the informants reflect over in their work with fiction. Three roles as mediators of fiction can be identified, not excluding one another, but instead possible to combine. The role that emphasise dialog with users is viewed as very important and is also the role that can be seen to play a great part in the development of the work with mediation of fiction. The knowledge required for this part of the librarian profession is shown to be complex and acquired in different ways. Several ideas about how the work can develop in the future are expressed.

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 Master’s thesis is to examine librarian images and stereotypes in Swedish and American fiction, and to discover if there are any differences between these. The images and stereotypes are also compared to those revealed in previous research. The study is based on ten novels. Five of these are written by Swedish authors and portrays Swedish librarians. The other five are written by American authors and portrays American librarians. The books were published between 1995 and 2007. Discourse analysis is used as theory and method. Quotes that describe librarians are used to illustrate images and reveal stereotypes. The analysis generates seven discourses, in which the quotes are embedded. The image that appears from the material is mainly negative. It doesn’t seem to have changed much and predominantly agrees with the image revealed in earlier research. It is possible to detect differences in the ways librarians are described in the Swedish literature and the American, but the stereotype is basically the same. The librarians in the material are primarily described as insignificant females with a drab way of dressing. The librarians lack the ability to attract the opposite sex and have little, if any, sexual experience. In lack of social life, they take refuge in reading. Some of the characters consider their job as their calling. A theme that only occurs in the American fiction is the transformation of drab and sexually inexperienced librarians into stylish and sexually active women with power to attract men. / Uppsatsnivå: D