Syftet med den här kandidatuppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om hursvenska folkbibliotek kan arbeta med biblioterapi. Detta uppnåsgenom att belysa SPES-projektet vid Norrköpings stadsbibliotek,ett biblioterapiprojekt i bokcirkelform, där deltagare ochcirkelledare träffas regelbundet för att prata om den lästalitteraturen. Metoden jag har använt är kvalitativa intervjuer där jagintervjuat bibliotekarien och samtalsterapeuten som håller ibiblioterapicirkeln samt två deltagare. I analysen presenterasresultaten från informanterna i fem olika delar; introduktion tillSPES-projektet, cirkelledarnas syn på biblioterapi, rollen sombibliotekarie samt rollen som samtalsterapeut i biblioterapicirklar,bibliotekets roll i biblioterapeutiska verksamheter och till sistdeltagarnas upplevelser av biblioterapicirkeln. Min analysförankras kontinuerligt till tidigare forskning och i slutsatsen knyterjag ihop resultaten och lägger fram några riktlinjer som andrabibliotek och organisationer kan dra nytta av i uppstartandet avbiblioterapiverksamheter. Samtliga av mina informanter harpositiva erfarenheter av biblioterapi, trots detta är det ett ovanligtfenomen på svenska folkbibliotek idag. Jag hoppas att den härkandidatuppsatsen kan öppna ögonen för hur bibliotek kanimplementera biblioterapeutiska verksamheter.

Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic method with book reading and dialogues about literature as its primary focus. It is a method that can be used for reading promotion purposes. Bibliotherapy is relatively unexplored in Sweden. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how bibliotherapy is applied outside Sweden. The thesis deals with questions regarding what reading promotion activities as well as what work steps and work roles, within the framework of bibliotherapy, that appear in the empirical material. The thesis also discusses possible challenges and obstacles, related to the practice of bibliotherapy that appear in the empirical material. The analysis method is deductive, qualitative, thematic content analysis. The empirical material consists of twelve research articles. The theoretical framework is a psychological perspective on literature combined with reading bibliotherapy and interactive bibliotherapy.  It was found that bibliotherapy is applied in collaboration between libraries, health care, schools and social authorities. Bibliotherapeutic models/activities such as Books on prescription, Read Yourself Well (RYW), Reading and You Service/Schemes (RAYS) and Read aloud groups are common in United Kingdom, but several of them also occurs in Australia, Canada, Netherlands, South Africa and USA. Establishing cooperation partners, Choose literature, Lead book circles and Conversations about literature are current work steps/roles. Getting to know individuals deeply in order to be able to determine appropriate literature is a challenge, but it strengthens the psychological perspective on literature as a unifying link between bibliotherapy and reading promotion activities. Funding, Marketing and Lack of knowledge about bibliotherapy are other challenges.

This thesis examines the selection of fiction made by librarians for the purpose of interactive bibliotherapy. The informants were four librarians at public libraries in north and middle Sweden. Methods used were semi-structured interviews and directed analysis of content with a theory driven approach. The theoretical framework consisted of concepts of quality discussed by Elam (2002): value subjectivism, value objectivism and value relativism. It also consisted of two concepts from bibliotherapy research which were used as a continuum and by no means mutually exclusive. These concepts were realistic literature and literature that enables escapism. The concept and contextual meaning of realistic literature stems from the work by Shrodes (1950) whose model of the bibliotherapeutic process has dominated the understanding of the conditions for bibliotherapeutic effect to appear in bibliotherapy. The value of literature that enable escapism is emphazised by Brewster (2011) and has in recent research been brought forward by Pettersson (2016). The results can be understood from the viewpoint of bibliotherapy as a three-step process in which the literature selection, i.e. the middle step, partly depends on the first step (project description, target group) and partly on expectations of what primarily constitutes the therapeutic effect: the act of reading or the social dimensions of the meeting (the third step). The results showed tendencies towards selecting literature of high quality in an objective sense, but often for other reasons than this objective quality itself. Neither realistic nor escapistic characteristics appeared to be central for the selection, but rather literature that enable multiple interpretations and raise existential questions.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate whether reading or the discussion of reading literature can enhance the psychological well-being from a user-perspective. The essay used the theory of Hynes and Hynes-Berry´s (2012) two distinctions of bibliotherapy; interactive- and reading bibliotherapy, to investigate reading and the use of reading as an impact on mental health. By the use of a survey sent to facebookgroups that regularly engage in reading and literature, it was utilized to showcase the two distinctions of bibliotherapy. The free-text answers given by the informants were parted into five identified themes, which was categorized into escapism, relaxation - to prevent stress, another perspective, insight - to identify with the story and belongingness. A discussion was also made about library and information science, which was used to discuss the possible bibliotherapeutic impact libraries could have on their users. The essay was summarized into conclusions, the last part of the text, where the question formulation were answered using the themes that had structured the results, the diagrams and charts that were presented in the quantitative results, and the two distinctions that structured the analysis. The conclusion of this essay is that when people read or discuss literature it is done with a positive result for their well-being. The study has shown that the concept of reading to enhance one's psychological well-being is an individual experience and differs depending on the person in question and their physical or psychological state. This essay has also come to the conclusion that bibliotherapy is something that could have a positive impact on libraries and their users if it got introduced and implemented to their practice. Although this requires a close collaboration between librarians and mental health professionals to combine their knowledge and create the best possible outcome for the users. Library and information science is therefore relevant when bibliotherapy is applied to users because of the librarians knowledge in the field such as information literacy.