No description available.

<p>The purpose of this study has been to examine reading habits and the use of the library by pre­school teachers in a mainly multicultural community, and also explore to what extent activities in the local library are aimed at preschoolers.</p><p>The study used a sociocultural approach based on Vygotsky’s theories of learning and development and Söderbergh’s theory of early childhood language development, and was carried out during the summer 2009. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, with a combination of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were sent out to each section of the municipal pre­schools within the catchments area of the local public library in a multicultural suburb of Uppsala. Three short interviews were carried out with staff at the local and main library branches, as well as library staff at the County Council.</p><p>The results show that, although preschool teachers find reading important in their work, many teachers read spontaneously and/or sporadically. Many also find that visiting the library is difficult, seeing distance and the age of the children as factors preventing them from going. The library studied has little or no mutual activities with the preschools. General activities aimed at young children are story time in Swedish and several other languages as well as theatre and music events, book talks aimed towards parents visiting early year’s centres and, for preschools since 2008, theme bags involving popular topics such as nature, friends, and seasons. Conflicts exist between the control documents for the libraries and the present law of education in Sweden.</p>

The purpose of this study has been to examine reading habits and the use of the library by pre­school teachers in a mainly multicultural community, and also explore to what extent activities in the local library are aimed at preschoolers. The study used a sociocultural approach based on Vygotsky’s theories of learning and development and Söderbergh’s theory of early childhood language development, and was carried out during the summer 2009. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, with a combination of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were sent out to each section of the municipal pre­schools within the catchments area of the local public library in a multicultural suburb of Uppsala. Three short interviews were carried out with staff at the local and main library branches, as well as library staff at the County Council. The results show that, although preschool teachers find reading important in their work, many teachers read spontaneously and/or sporadically. Many also find that visiting the library is difficult, seeing distance and the age of the children as factors preventing them from going. The library studied has little or no mutual activities with the preschools. General activities aimed at young children are story time in Swedish and several other languages as well as theatre and music events, book talks aimed towards parents visiting early year’s centres and, for preschools since 2008, theme bags involving popular topics such as nature, friends, and seasons. Conflicts exist between the control documents for the libraries and the present law of education in Sweden.

No description available.

The study aims to examine how leisure-time centers implement reading in their activities and how leisure-time teachers perceive reading in the leisure-time center. The study also explores how leisure-time centers cooperate with libraries. The method used was qualitative interviews with six leisure-time teachers from six leisure-time centers. The leisure-time teachers were all recruited to the study because of their implementation of reading in the leisure-time center. The interviews were analyzed with a theoretical framework compiled by Limberg (2003) about ways that adults perceive reading in schools and libraries. The study shows that the leisure-time teachers have different attitudes towards reading, some aligning themselves more with school reading and others more with leisure reading. This points toward the conclusion that the leisure-time center does not provide equal opportunities for all children in Sweden to read in the same way in the leisure-time center. The study additionally shows that the leisure-time teachers and librarians often only have a superficial cooperation consisting of the librarian providing books for the leisure-time center but rarely participating in reading activities. Results point towards that leisure-time teachers’ perception of reading impacts if and how the leisure-time center wishes to cooperate with the library. Leisure-time teachers with a perception of reading that coincides with the school seem to be less interested in using the librarian in activities while teachers with a more leisure oriented view have more of an interest of including the librarian.

The concept of family is heterogeneous and multifaceted, but is often portrayed as homogeneous. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the image of family in the library environment is open and broadminded enough to accommodate all the different individuals who visit the library. To investigate how the concept of family is produced in a children's library environment, I conducted semi structured interviews with six librarians, and observed five children´s libraries. The study, which is a qualitative small-N study has been conducted on a limited number of public libraries and is performed with an intersectional and queer theory perspective. The focus has been on norms, normality, normativity and heteronormativity. The image of family that emerged most clearly in the study was the image of the western heterosexual constellation. Interviews with children´s librarians showed that other family constellations are welcome in the library environment, but is usually treated as a project or as themes. The norms concerning the concept of the family is clear: family equals two Swedish born heterosexual parents with biological children. Norms regarding gender and ethnicity became clear in, among other things, the ideas that the mother is expected to be the one who is at home during the baby's first months and that visitors with a native language other than Swedish are uninterested by the library and need more engagement from the librarians to find their way to the library and its activities. There is thus a normative approach to the concept of family in the library environment, which affect how the visitors can recognize and experience their own situation- either as normal or abnormal.

In 2016 a new space for younger children opened at Malmö public library called Kanini. Kanini builds on a vision of the future library for children where flexibility, offers of new experiences and children’s participation will characterize the library space and activities. As some of the children are very young, a large group users are adults. The aim of this master’s study is to examine a) how adults use the new children’s library in relation to the intentions expressed in Kanini’s steering documents and, b) adult conceptions of Kanini. In an ethnographic approach participant observations have been carried out at Kanini as well as an analysis of Kanini’s steering documents. The theoretical framework is based on the Four Space Model constructed by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Ramsussen and Dorte Skot-Hansen, together with a model of children’s participation developed by Barbro Johansson and Frances Hultgren as well as the concept of mothering developed by Sara Ruddick. The analysis of the material shows that adults in the main use Kanini as intended according to the documentation i.e. in new and creative ways. At the same time, adults tend to have traditional ideas of what a children’s library is and how to use it. There would seem to be a contradiction in perceptions of the children’s library and how it is actually used. Conclusions include that the vision of the future children’s library may take some time to replace traditional expectations.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how reading is promoted in two digital libraries for children; Barnens bibliotek and Polarbibblo. Theoretically the websites are analysed using three main approaches to reading: traditional, pragmatic and emancipatory. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the material and to identify the ways in which reading is promoted through the websites. Findings showed that these children's digital libraries use their material and activities mainly to inspire and inform their users. Polarbibblo allows the children to act as authors and illustrators and to share a story or two. Barnens bibliotek is similar but puts more into guiding the children on how to find information and literature. Although these two libraries have different content and features, both libraries work to inspire and stimulate reading for children. The study shows that of the three reading approaches, the pragmatic and the emancipatory are dominant. The traditional approach doesn't seem to get any greater attention in these children’s digital libraries.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and describe how the children’s department in a library has developed until today. The study shall contribute to a deeper understanding of how the view of children within libraries has changed over time and how the libraries work with children and youths today. I will, in my study, describe how the library in Kalmar looked when it comes to their focus on children and how the focus look like today regarding this library. I will also study if there are any similarities or differences when it comes to the growth of Kalmar’s children’s department compared to a national development of children’s libraries. The study is done with an institutional theoretical framework with ideal types as a central concept. The method I’m using is qualitative content analysis. The material consists mostly of archive documents in the form of protocols, annual reports, and newspaper clippings regarding the period relevant for my study. The analysis shows that Kalmar’s City Library has undergone a major development regarding the evolution of children’s libraries. A lot of this development is consistent with the national development regarding children’s libraries but there are also some differences in the development on a local level.

Läsförståelsen hos Sveriges 15-åringar sjunker drastiskt och läsfrämjande arbete med barn och unga har förstärkts i bibliotekslagen. Samtidigt har FN:s barnkonvention blivit lag och medfört att barns delaktighet är ett högaktuellt ämne. Utifrån detta och att biblioteksforskare anser att barnbibliotekets utformning behöver ses över, är studier av biblioteksrum i syfte att stärka barns delaktighet och litteracitetsutveckling befogat. Rummet kan fungera som resurs i det didaktiska arbetet med barn och denna studie syftar till att belysa att rummet som resurs även kan tillämpas på barnbibliotek. Rummets betydelse för läsfrämjande arbete på barnbibliotek har här studerats genom observationer av barnens interaktioner med biblioteksrum och intervjuer med bibliotekspersonal, på tre olika barnbiblioteksverksamheter. Studien har undersökt de olika metoder genom vilka barnbiblioteken arbetar med läsfrämjande och barns delaktighet och hur bibliotekspersonal utformat rummet för att stödja detta. Analysen har sin utgångspunkt i teorier om rummets betydelse, litteracitetsbegreppet och olika förståelse av barns delaktighet.Resultaten visar på att barns delaktighet på barnbibliotek inte är oproblematisk. I synnerhet var det inte oproblematisk att få barnens synpunkter på utvecklingen av verksamheten. Att fråga barnen var mindre effektivt än att observera och samspela med dem. Läsfrämjande verksamhet kan vara att utforma rum som tillgängliggör böcker till barnen och inbjuder till högläsning men kan även vara att erbjuda vägar in till litteraturen genom berättande och olika estetiska uttryckssätt. Men oavsett synen på läsfrämjande, gagnar en medveten utformning av rummet verksamhetens syften genom att underlätta barnens utforskande av sin litteracitet och sin delaktighet på barnbiblioteket.