The purpose of this two years master´s thesis in Archive, Library and Information Museum science is to examine the ideas about children and childhood which have an influence on the storytime at public libraries. The material on which this thesis is based, is a methodbook which is aimed to develop the storytimes and those picture books that are recommend in the methodbook. The theoretical points of departure are discourse analysis and childhood sociology. The concepts of being and becoming are frequently used when analyzing the methodbook. Other theoretical points of departure are the combination of narratologi, semiotics and hermeneutics, which are also used when analyzing the picture books. The result indicates that the storytime, recommended in the methodbook, is based on the idea of a timeless culture of childhood - where the "modern child" including the media used today - is left out. Concepts as nostalgia and pedagogy are tightly connected. The childhood as it appears in the storytime is a locked pedagogical room.

The aim of this essay is to explore the concept of kindergarten libraries that is becoming a more frequent collaboration method between public libraries and preschools in Sweden. Situated between the sphere of public libraries and preschools, the kindergarten library is a bridge between two relationship professions as well as part of both political efforts and investments for providing books to kindergartens. This study investigates this relationship, the librarians’ roles that take form within this work and what kind of literacy that is being promoted to young children. Two qualitative group interviews were conducted with librarians who work as coordinators for the kindergarten libraries in different municipalities. The empirical material was then coded through Maj Klasson’s model of librarian roles. The results show that while the relationship is one of support, and that both professions work with a common interest in what is best for the children, librarians initiate and coordinate the kindergarten libraries but leave the majority of the literacy content to the preschool teachers. In such, the book is highly valued to be the center of the kindergarten library but other literary skills are overlooked.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of class visits to public- or school-libraries during school hours, regarding students of ages 7- 10. The research is founded on a case study on Burträsk library, and uses qualitative interviews with librarians and teachers at the nearby elementary school, and non-intrusive observations of class visits. The research questions were: - What is the function of the school's class visits to the library, for the students' reading and desire to read? - What thoughts and attitudes do the teachers and librarians who work with class visits have, about reading-promoting activities and children's reading? - How do these thoughts and attitudes express themselves, in the work with class visits? The study finds that the teachers and librarians who are part of the study have a pragmatic approach to children's reading, which places more emphasis on the children’s joy to read, than that they read a particular type of literature. The teachers 'work creates a joyful view of reading in most children who participate in class visits, and class visits seem to be of great importance for the children' s desire to read.

The aim of this paper is to investigate who the visitors are at a children's department at amain library in a larger municipality, and for what purpose they use it. We discuss: Is therea difference between various user groups, and if so, how do they differ'? Which library rolesdoes the children's department have? Does the children's department serve as a local libraryfor those who live in the immediate surroundings or as a main library for the whole municipality?The paper is based on a user survey performed in the spring of 1996 at the City Library ofGothenburg. 417 visitors and five staff members were interviewed.The children's department is used by various groups of people, from young children to seniorcitizens. The library roles are, among other things, an independent learning center and formaleducation support center. The children's department functions both as a local library anda main library.

In 1911 Valfrid Palmgren founded the Children's Library of Stockholm, the very first in Sweden.She was a well-educated woman, who believed in social and educational equality for all.During a journey to the USA in 1907, she was deeply impressed by the public libraries, andshe put many of the public library ideas to use in the Children's Library of Stockholm. Palmgrenstrongly opposed to the Swedish libraries not allowing admission to children, since shefirmly believed that educating the people had to start with the children.Other reasons for opening a children's library were to give children an alternative to roamingthe streets, to give children a quiet place to read, to give an alternative to the cheap trashliterature that flooded the market and to teach the young ones how to extract information frombooks. Of great importance was that the library should be equal to all classes in society.In 1927 the children's library was taken over by the new public library of Stockholm.

The aim of this study is to investigate the needs and wishes of 10-13- year old children, so called tweens, when it comes to their local library. What kind of library do the children want? How does the mission and different functions for the children's library of today correspond to the needs of the children? Children of this certain age have been interviewed in focus groups where they have had freedom to “create” their own library and discuss what they consider important in a library. Skot- Hansen, Rasmussen & Jochumsen's model (2011) with four important spaces for a library - performative space, learning space, inspiration space and meeting space has been part of analyzing the result. These four different areas for the library have been divided into threefunctions: a place for being, a place for learning and a place for creating.The result of the thesis shows, among others, that even though many of the aims of the libraries and the results of research correspond to the ideas and needs of the children, one of the most important functions for the children is the library as a place to relax, a quiet room, where they can dive into their books and other media, which has not been discussed in the research I have taken part of. Furthermore, there are good examples around the world of libraries where the children have been the creators and I think that most of the ideas the children come up with are possible to realize. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This master’s thesis concerns the performance of professional children’s theatre in public libraries. With qualitative interviews I have looked into how four children’s librarians and two theatre consultants appreciate professional children’s theatre, and furthermore I have looked into their view on the importance of theatre for children. My intentions have also been to investigate their views on the function and status of children’s theatre in public libraries and also the relationship between library and theatre activities for children. The empirical findings have been analyzed using theory and previous research. The quality aspect of children’s theatre has been analysed using Willmar Sauter’s communication model, which analyzes the communication between the stage and the audience. The results show that children’s librarians and theatre consultants believe that the experience of quality is strongly connected to the theatre company’s treatment of the audience prior to the performance and their ability to maintain the communication with the audience through out the performance. The quality of the performance is also influenced by the children’s librarians and the theatre consultant’s perception of the working skills, intentions, conditions of production, and economical conditions of the theatre company. Furthermore the results show that the children’s librarians and theatre consultants are convinced that a positive experience of children’s theatre is potentially beneficial to children, due to its ability to confirm the child’s inner and outer world, and work as a means for processing and reflection. The results show that children’s theatre performed in libraries can serve a useful purpose in the relation between a child and its parents. The children’s librarians all consider children’s theatre to be an integral part of children’s libraries activities.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate articles in Swedish library journals on children’s reading from gender and sex perspectives. Gender theory as it has been developed by Yvonne Hirdman and Robert W. Connell is used to analyze the articles. The thesis includes a chapter on previous research in the fields of gender in relation to children, reading and the library. The analysis of the articles reveals that the differences between girls and boys and their reading are both a product of notions of sex and gender. In the articles boys are described as avoiding reading and/or certain books because they associate it with girls and “girly” things are seen as forbidden for them. Other articles, that describe the differences as a product of sex, argue that girls and boys like reading different types of books and that these differences should be encouraged because otherwise children may loose interest in reading. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this master thesis is to create, test and evaluate an analytical instrument for children’s library environment based on a theoretical framework consisting of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Thomas Armstrong’s pedagogical application of the original seven intelligences. We wanted to investigate whether the environment in Rum för barn stimulated all of children’s different intelligences. We also wanted to identify possibilities and liabilities within the analytical instrument. In order to test the analytical instrument we conducted observations on the physical environment of the Swedish children’s library Rum för barn. We did not observe the staff, visitors or social interaction in the library. The results of our investigation of the environment in Rum för barn implicated that all seven intelligences were stimulated by the physical environment. We analyzed the results in a discussion where we compared them to our empirical material consisting of research about children and environment from different scientific fields. Our conclusions of this master thesis were that our analytical instrument made it possible to investigate the physical environment of children’s libraries. It also determined whether the environment stimulated the seven intelligences according to the theory of multiple intelligences. The analytical instrument could therefore be used for the development of children’s library environments. We also identified some liabilities in the analytical instrument, mainly concerning the definitions of some environmental concepts, age adjustments and the fact that we excluded observations of social interactions. We suggested solutions to the liabilities and encouraged further research on the subject. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The objective for this Master’s thesis is to study literary programs for infants at six Swedish public libraries, their relevance and importance for infants and how the infant’s perspective in the program design and implementation is taken into consideration. The questions I pose are: * In which way do the programs take the infants need for development and their literary prerequisites into consideration? * Which functions can the programs have for infants? I have used a qualitative method, based on deep interviews with six library staff, working with literary programs. A model was developed based upon Daniel Stern’s theories of the interpersonal world of the infant together with Joseph Appleyard’s reading development theory. My conclusion is that the literacy programs for infants take the infants needs and prerequisites into consideration. They are both relevant and important for the infants’ early development. They stimulate the child’s need for safety, expansion, emotions, play, cognition, perception and language development. The literary programs also have five functions for the child; these are a social- and identity development function, a language development function, a literary- and aesthetic experience function, a pre-literary function and a status improving function for the infant.