The aim of this bachelor thesis is to see how illustrators and illustrations are treated in Bibliotekstjänst’s binding booklets compared to how authors and texts are treated, i.e. the picture versus the printed word. My aim is to try and find out if librarians have the aids to acquire information about picture-book illustrators and illustrations in their selective work and reference work. In order to find out about this I need to examine the most common aid in this work, i.e. Bibliotekstjänst’s binding booklets. The investigation is of both qualitative and, to a certain degree, quantitative character. The investigation consists of three parts: literature studies, interviews with two librarians and a source analysis of Bibliotekstjänst’s professional readers’ opinions of picture-books in 2001. The binding booklets can function relatively well as an aid for librarians to acquire information about picture-book illustrators and illustrations in their selective work. This is relatively clear when examining debate, interviews and source analysis. Proposals for improvements have included an increase in number of words and increased possibilities to see the illustrations themselves before purchasing literature. In the reference work there are no satisfactory aids in order to acquire information about the illustrations. Librarians are mainly forced to use their experience in order to answer questions pertaining to picture-books. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The aim of this study is to examine views of picture books for children that reviewers in Swedish daily press express in their reviews in 2009 and 2010. The following questions were posed in the study: Are picture book reviews based on pedagogical criteria and/or aesthetic/literary criteria? Are picture books reviewed from an adult perspective and/or from a child perspective? Which elements of positive and negative criticism are to be found in picture book reviews? This qualitative study is based on 45 reviews of picture books in Swedish daily press. The theoretical approach is developed from four ways of looking at children literature that professor Maria Nikolajeva has compiled. The method used is idea analysis, which is a form of text-analysis. The results show that most of the reviews mainly were based on aesthetic/literary criteria, but many of them there were also based on pedagogical criteria. A common pedagogical criterion was if the book showed a desirable view or not. The results also show that there were both an adult perspective and a child perspective in the reviews. Positive and negative criticism indicated that a good picture book has an important message, provide a desirable view, and maintain high aesthetic/literary quality. In addition, it suits all ages, or is adapted to children.