The purpose of this essay is to examine how public libraries work with children's books, in other languages thanSwedish, regarding acquisitions. The purpose is also to describe what the libraries assignments are in regard tochildren with non-Swedish backgrounds. This is then put in a relation to the libraries democratic assignment.The main questions are: What are the libraries' assignments, as described in the libraries regulations? How do thelibraries work to fulfil their assignments? To answer these questions a survey in two parts has been carried out. The first is a study of the libraries'regulations, and various handbooks that serve as an inspiration for librarians. The other is a qualitative interviewsurvey which took place at three libraries in Uppsala and one in Märsta. The survey of the documents shows that the libraries are expected to give special attention to the needs ofchildren with non-Swedish backgrounds. Among other things, this means keeping a varied book stock of goodquality, on all the different languages represented in the area. In Sweden, the leading supplier of media servicesserving libraries, are BTJ. The libraries in the survey turn to BTJ's selection when acquiring books. The librarians however find BTJ's selection of books limited and non-satisfactory when it comes to children's booksin other languages than Swedish. On account of this, the librarians are forced to turn to alternative solutions. The alternative channels for acquisitions they mention are the children's bookshop Bokspindeln in Stockholm,retailers who visit the libraries, and acquisitions during their own travels abroad. The International Library in Stockholm is a valuable resource, in administering book deposits to the local libraries and aiding them withadvice regarding acqusitions. The essay's theoretical frames are built upon three main concepts: identity, ethnicity and language. The theories discussed, suggest that a person's language and ethnicity is of great importance when it comes to theperson's process of forming an identity. The identity is continuously constructed in the interaction and dialoguewith others. The libraries can play an important role for this process, as a source of language and culture. Furthermore, the survey notices the libraries' role as a democratic force in society. The libraries areexpected to act in order to maintain the human rights. The libraries can serve as an open room for democraticdiscussions. The libraries should offer everyone free and unlimited access to knowledge, thoughts, culture andinformation. They can also contribute to increasing the status of minority languages and stress the value ofmultilingualism. The libraries are also seen as a place where cultural exchange is possible, which is meant tohelp create a base for greater understanding and openness towards different cultures in the minds of the people. The main conclusion in this essay regards whether the libraries can or cannot do enough to fulfill theirassignments. The main source for acquisitions mentioned, BTJ, being the leading supplier of media services tolibraries, does not seem to have enough resources to serve the libraries in a satisfying way, when it comes tochildren's books on other languages than Swedish. Whether the libraries can meet the special needs ofmultilingual children, is therefore a question of the librarians own resourcefulness and networking.

Introduction. This empirical study investigates the attitudes of Swedish public librarians who work in the children’s and/or young adult departments, towards children’s literary classics. This is achieved by examining work with the Classics shelf, a genre classification located in the children’s or young adult section. Method. The empirical material consists of transcripts from interviews with seven children’s and young adult public librarians in four Swedish municipalities, the Classics shelves and the libraries’ policy documents. Analysis. The Classics shelves’ genre definition, target group and location were investigated and compared to the libraries’ policy documents. Interview transcripts were examined in regard to the explicit contents of the participants’ statements and divided in themes by perceptions of value, function and use of the literature in a library context. Magnus Persson’s concept of myths describing naturalised perceptions of literature was used to interpret attitudes. A concluding analysis was conducted using the discourse theories of Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Results. The analysis indicated both shared and conflicting attitudes to children’s and young adult literary classics, with perceptions predominantly taken for granted. Three coexisting discourses were identified: the Reading experience discourse, the Durability discourse and the Fresh discourse. These are mainly tied to different tasks and influenced by the librarians’ preconceived notions, workplace management and external influences such as media debates, with the user perspective as a prerequisite. Conclusion. The results show that the librarian accommodates contradictory and ambivalent views of children’s and young adult literary classics in the library. Literature is mediated indirectly and directly, and expresses the librarian’s personal experience rather than a professional identity. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Introduction. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how librarians in public libraries, school libraries and integ-rated libraries relate to reading for pleasure in regards to reading for development in their work with students. A conflict has been shown between promoting voluntary reading and promoting reading ability. We base our re-sults in Qvortrups theory about children as “beings” or “becomings” together with Junckers theory about the distinction between the cultures of the educational sector and the cultural sector. Method. We conducted a qualitative interview study with seven sources from the three library types. We also conducted a quantitative survey study with vignettes taken from the qualitative analysis. Analysis. The qualitative result was analysed with a conventional content analysis. We conducted three inde-pendent one way anovas to investigate if there were any differences between the library types in the survey. Results. The qualitative study showed that all sources highly valued reading for pleasure and the students right to choose literature. The school librarians more often related their work to improving reading ability and to school criteria than librarians from the other two library types. We found similar tendencies in the results from the survey sample but none of these was significant with a significance level of p < 0.05. Conclusion. Librarians from all types of libraries show a reasoning consistent with the view of children as “beings” and the culture from the cultural sector. School librarians in our results do more often than the other two library types show a view of children as “becomings” consistent with the culture from the educational sector. Therefore we would argue that it is important to watch the development with strengthened school lib-raries so that the view of children as “becomings” does not become the only perspective dominating children's daily lives. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Public libraries are the largest mediators of literature to young children in Sweden. They are obligated to pay special attention to children, and to offer various literature and service that meets the needs of different people. It’s important that libraries offer a wide range of literature that shows a diversity of people and relations for children to be able to relate and thereby find the motivation to keep on reading. Norm creativity (normkreativitet) is a method used to challenge and broaden already existing norms. This essay study how Swedish children librarians apply norm creativity in their everyday practice. This is done by conducting a qualitative analysis in which I’ve interviewed five children’s librarians in five randomly selected public libraries about purchase, weeding, selection for storytelling and highlighting of books in the library.  Shove, Pantzar and Watsons practical social theory is used to describe how librarians can either change norms or deliberately or unconsciously help consolidate already prevailing norms in their everyday practice. The theory contains three elements; material, competence and meaning.  The result shows that it´s up to one and each librarian to apply norm creativity and that it´s very different how well-informed and motivated they are. Lack of published materials and problem finding reviews affects the purchases. The librarians also reflect on how some published books have the purpose to show diversity at the expense of quality.

Introduction. We investigated how librarians viewed childhood, children’s participation and their own profes- sional role in relation to these two topics. Recently the Convention on the Rights of the Child became law in Sweden, and we explored the possible effects on the library professional’s role in comparison to a country where little has been done in regard to children’s rights during the past few years. Method. Qualitative interviews were conducted in Sweden and in England. The empirical data consisted of tran- scriptions and note-taking from four interviews conducted in each country. In total we interviewed eight librarians working with children. Analysis. We carried out a qualitative analysis of the empirical data by a basic thematic approach. The analysis consisted of two separate parts - based on the data from Sweden and England respectively - leading up to a final joint discussion and comparison of our results. Results. There was a pattern of viewing the child more often as “becoming” in England. When the child was viewed as “being” in England this was linked to a norm of children feeling safe, happy and playful. The analysis showed that formal training and awareness of children’s rights to participate were greater amongst the Swedish librarians. Still, children were not actively involved in the planning of events at the library. Conclusion. The views conveyed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child is now part of the Swedish librari- ans’ professional role with an emphasis on the right of participation. In the case of English librarians, certain aspects of the convention are important, although the need for children’s participation seems to have been set aside in favor of children’s feeling of safety. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Denna kvalitativa studie ämnar till att undersöka hur bibliotek som plats verkar för barns rättigheter i samhället, och hur bibliotekarier inom olika bibliotekstyper ser på detta. Det empiriska materialet består av en kortare dokumentstudie av tre styrdokument för biblioteksverksamheten i Stockholms stad, samt två intervjuer med personal på ett folkbibliotek och ett barnbibliotek. Med en beskrivande idéanalys analyseras det empiriska materialet med hjälp av teoretiska verktyg från Giroux’s teori om gränspedagogik och radikal demokrati. Som komplement har även begreppen barnperspektiv och barns perspektiv lyfts in som teoretiska verktyg. Studien visar att bibliotekarier tänker på liknande sätt kring barns rättigheter och bibliotek som plats, men att skillnaderna i arbetet mot barns rättigheter i rummet ligger i utrymmet och de resurser biblioteket har. Studiens centrala slutsatser är att barns rättigheter bör vara en grundbult i biblioteksverksamheten för barn, att barnens eget inflytande får ta plats, och att relationsskapande och trygghet är viktiga komponenter. Även att skapa separatistiska platser för barnen och att personalens barnperspektiv formats utefter barnens perspektiv. / This qualitative study aims to examine how the public library can function as a place for children’s rights, and librarians’ views on this. The empirical material is based on a shorter document study of three governing documents for the City of Stockholm, and two interviews with personnel at a public library and a children’s library. The empirical material is analyzed with a descriptive idea analysis, using theoretical tools based on Giroux’s theory on border pedagogy and radical democracy. As a complementary theoretical tool, the concept of child perspective and children’s perspective have also been brought in. The study shows that librarians’ thoughts about children’s rights and the library as place is similar, but that there is a difference in the work towards children’s rights which lie in the space of the room and the resources given. Central conclusions of the study show that children’s rights should be a cornerstone of library operations towards children, that children’s own influence is allowed to take place, and that creating relationships and safety are important components. As well as creating separate places only for the children, and that the child perspective is shaped with the children’s perspective in mind.