The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how librarians in a Swedish public library view and discuss mediation of fiction. The questions posed in this study are: How do the librarians want to work with mediation of fiction? What type of literature should be provided according to them? How do they express that they relate and should relate to their users? The theoretical starting-points are three categories extracted from Jofrid Karner Smidt’s doctor’s dissertation Mellom elite og publikum: the approach to users, strategies for mediation, and ideals for mediation. The empirical material was gathered through focus group interviews with librarians in a public library. This material was analyzed using the categories above. The results show that the librarians manifest a traditional view on mediation of fiction and the strategies used for mediation. The user group primarily discussed consists of readers of popular literature who are considered in need of help and guidance. The librarians have an ambition to improve the literary preferences of these users to what the librarians consider high quality literature. In contrast, they express a fear to be looked upon as condemning and therefore tend to suppress their personal literary views. The study poses questions about high versus low literary quality and whose needs should be addressed considering mediation of fiction. The result shows that the librarians focus solely on one of many user groups and therefore risk excluding other user groups. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master's thesis is to examine whether librarians working in public libraries see fiction as a source of knowledge, and what role this plays in the educational mission of the public library. This investigation, which consists of a literary study and an empirical section, shows that the concept of phronesis denotes practical wisdom and moral thinking, and that it can be applied to that form of knowledge to which reading can contribute. An important issue in this context is the reader's motivation to learn. The interviews show that librarians see literature as a source from which knowledge can be drawn. When they mediate literature, they believe that they are conveying something of value and they set great store in mediating literature which could have a not inconsiderable import to the borrowers. However, they do not naturally consider what they do as mediating knowledge. The literary studies and the empirical research show that there is a strong connection between the concept of adult education and literature, while the term lifelong learning is now used by people working in public libraries instead of adult education. The concept of lifelong learning connects the informants primarily with work that is directed to adults who are studying. This causes uncertainty as to whether they are actually working with adult education at all. However, public librarians mediate in a way that is considered to be a part of the tradition in adult education. They have a down-up perspective that includes respect for and belief in the abilities of the individual. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate how adults describe their individual reading experiences, on the basis of their own reflections by keeping a reading diary. Reading diaries kept during two months and a qualitative questionnaire for each of our nine motivated and advanced adult readers, were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. The study was carried out on the Internet. The theoretical framework that served as a point of departure is Ross’ and Chelton’s model for the process of choosing a book to read for pleasure, Nussbaum’s moral philosophy and thesis “Reading for life” and Mukařovský’s theory of the aesthetic value. Several results are presented and discussed; some are included in this abstract. Our informants show a wide range of reading of different genres, and they choose and value literature on the basis of their life situation. The valuations differ due to the motives of the wanted reading experience. They vary their reading to maintain the passion of reading. Our informants deliberately prefer Internet as a platform for information about books, particularly those less discussed in media. They use fiction as entertainment and escape. The readers search images to reflect their own life. In this way, they develop experience and social understanding without losing their critical view. The identification of the reader is not a matter of age or of culture. The conclusion of this master thesis shows the significant and valuable meaning of fiction in adult’s lives.

BAKGRUND: I bakgrunden beskriver vi vad litteratur och forskning tar upp kring skönlitteratur i undervisningen. Viktiga begrepp definieras. Vi redogör för den Kosovoalbanska läroplanen och kursplanen i albanska SYFTE: Vårt syfte är att undersöka hur lärarna i vår studie använder skönlitteratur i undervisningen och vilka faktorer som enligt lärarna påverkar hur undervisningen ser ut. METOD: Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod med öppna intervjuer och observationer. Intervjufrågorna har genererats utifrån observationerna detta för att få en tydligare bild för hur lärarna arbetar med skönlitteratur i undervisningen. RESULTAT: Vårt resultat visar på att lärarna i vår studie till större delen använder sig av traditionella metoder vid arbete med skönlitteratur. Resurserna och vilken politik som förs i kommunen påverkar undervisningen och läroböckerna i hög grad enligt lärarna. En önskan att arbeta med metoder såsom litteratursamtal finns hos samtliga lärare. Lärarna utgår uteslutet ifrån läroboken.

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The aim of this Master’s thesis is to explore the meaning of literature forliterate immigrants in regards to identity and integration. The study is based onqualitative interviews with eight Swedes of various backgrounds, but with thecommon experience of an immigration process. In addition to being migrants, therespondents are also public library users who have an interest in literature and whoread literature during their leisure time. To analyze the empirical material ananalytical framework, consisting of a number of analytical concepts from Libraryand Information Science, Literature Science, and Sociology, has been used. Theresults show that literary reading and public libraries in many ways have been ofgreat importance to respondents during their integration processes. In addition, thestudy shows that, through what literature professor Anders Pettersson callsAnalogic Thinking associated with literature reading, the respondents create apersonal understanding of the culture within which the text is written. Thisunderstanding includes practical cultural knowledge, as well as empathic insightinto the human mind. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master thesis is to analyse the interaction in between reading and writing based on young writers experience. My approach was to investigate how writersread literature and how they look upon their reading in relation to their own writing.Seven young people has been interviewed in this qualitative study, based a theory about their reading and reading habits. They were asked questions about reading habits and theirview upon the connection between reading and their own writing.Previous studies of Swedes´ reading habits prove that relaxation and pleasure are the most common reasons for literary reading. This differs from the present study, where my findings shows that writing people, more than other, read literature, in the way people in general read non-fiction. That is with a purpose beyond the actual ”situation of reading”. These persons often describe even their fiction reading in terms of knowledge, orientationand information, which usually are purposes connected to reading non-fiction. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to examine the fiction promoting role of public librarians through their fiction displays. The study covers three problems: What reasons do public librarians give for their selection of displayed fiction? How do public librarians view fiction displays in relation to other promotion strategies? How do public librarians think that promotion through fiction displays will evolve in the future?The results of the study have been analyzed using Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theory of how public librarians view their promotion of fiction. The concepts used are promotion due to public demand, actively recommending and informative promotion, and through dialogue. To account for the problems investigated in the study, eight librarians have been questioned through semi-structured interviews. Observations of fiction displays were also made at the time of those interviews.Through their selections, the librarians aim to support the users’ reading habits as well as to challenge and broaden those habits. According to the informants, displays affect the number of loans, but the book covers are also significant. The librarians see fiction displays as an opportunity to display fiction that corresponds to their personal tastes. Speculating about the future, librarians find it likely that the selection of fiction displayed online will be more influenced by users’ demand. For the future of physical libraries, librarians hope that libraries will work harder to display fiction that is often overlooked. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to examine adults’ fictionreading habits. The focus is finding out what differencesexist between men and women to study the significance offiction to readers. The study is based on a questionnairesurvey with men and women coming in to a public library.We used Sten Furhammar’s reading dimensions andcategories to describe the importance of the respondentsreading experience and describe the ways that men andwomen read.Our result shows that the genres men and women prefer arenovels, detective stories/thrillers and biographies. Thereading experience can be either personal or impersonal andthey can read either for experience or for instrumental use.The respondents read in different ways depending on bookgenre, content elements and where the reading takes place.We identify several functions of reading fiction; the mainthree reasons are to read for relaxation, entertainment and topass the time. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur man som lärare kan arbeta med kritisk läsning av skönlitteratur inom svenskämnet för att diskutera och uppnå läroplanens värdegrundsmål. Genom mitt arbete har jag försökt svara på frågor som vad det innebär att arbeta med värdegrundsmålen i skolan, hur man kan använda skönlittertur som medel för att uppnå värdegrundsmålen, vilken typ av skönlitteratur som passar sig för ändamålet och vad kritisk läsning egentligen är och hur det kan inkluderas i undervisningen. För att kunna lyckas med detta har jag själv läst och analyserat Sargassohavet av Jean Rhys ur ett postkolonialt, feministiskt och genusvetenskapligt perspektiv och satt detta i perspektiv till läsningsdidaktik inom skolan. Resultatet visar att Sargassohavet lämpar sig väl för ändamålet, men att annan litteratur som inte har samma tydliga postkoloniala och feministiska teman också kan fungera. Den största slutsatsen som dras är att kritisk läsning snarare handlar om läsning med en efterföljande kritisk diskussion eller boksamtal. Det är troligt att svenskämnet skulle gynnas av att man införde kritisk läsning av skönlitteratur i kursplanerna då detta lämpar sig väl för att dels nå större förståelse för vad man läser, men också för att gynna arbetet mot fördomar.