The aim of this thesis is to investigate how four educated school librarians select titels to present to their pupils during book talks, and their understanding of the concept of quality. I have used two main questions: * What method of selection do the interviewed school librarians use when they choose books to present during book talks? * How do the interviewed school librarians understand the concept of quality in relation to book talks? In order to obtain answers to my questions I have used the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews. I interviewed four school librarians who work with book talks for children from ages 6-12. To analyse their answers I used three views on reading: the pragmatic, the traditionalistic and the emancipatory view. I found that the most important factor in my informants’ book selection is that they chose books they believe the pupils would enjoy reading. They were reluctant to define the concept of quality and the common view was that the fact the pupils were reading was more important than the value of the content in the book.

The starting point of this study is the crossover phenomenon and how the needs of adult readers of young adult fiction can be met in the library services. To investigate this, the main focus is on how public librarians perceive cross-reading adults, and in what ways literature promotion can facilitate or restrict adults' reading of young adult fiction. Six librarians were interviewed for this study, and the results were analyzed from a theoretical perspective that emphasizes literature promotion as an activity that can affect the perceptions, and actions of the recipients. The librarians express an open attitude to cross-reading in general, which creates favorable conditions for anyone who wishes to read across age boundaries. Furthermore, there are several situations where the librarians sometimes choose to recommend young adult literature to adults, or when fiction for adults and young adults is shelved together. However, the main part of the collection is still organized and shelved based on age categories. The study suggests that when literature is directed at a specific age group, there may be a restricting effect on those who do not fit into that age category, unlike in cases where literature is contextualized based on content. Literature may also be seen as more appropriate for certain age groups by its proximity or distance to other literature departments in the library. One conclusion drawn is that if the boundaries between different age groups are loosened, this may be advantageous for more than one group of library users.

This master’s thesis falls under the topic of sociology in literature. The purpose is to examine what kind of attitudes that a few Swedish librarians may have to the crime fiction/murder mystery genre. The aim of this paper is also to find out if those attitudes have changed through during their working time, and if so, how they have changed. This paper is going to raise the following issues; What attitudes do librarians have to the detective genre and how has these attitudes possibly changed through the years? What does the librarian consider regarding the names that the crime fiction may have? What is the librarian's attitude to the detective genre trends and popularity, and has this changed from a backward-looking perspective?The theory of thesis is based Jofrid Karner Smidts theory about the characteristics of the librarian’s literary taste and the role of the librarian as a mediator of literature. The main method used in this thesis is qualitative interviews. In total, six librarians from five different public access libraries have been interviewed, with questions based on the devised thesis problem. All of the librarians who were interviewed had a positive attitude to the crime fiction/murder mystery genre in question. All the libraries had a special crime fiction shelf to promote the genre. The trends of the crime fiction genre are tilted towards female writers, with a growing trend in descriptive violence.

The topic of this bachelor thesis is the promotion of easy-to-read fiction for 10-12 year old children in public libraries. The number of easy-to-read fiction books is increasing on the book market. This can be expected to affect the public library. The hypotheses for the study are: 1) Public libraries expose easy-to-read fiction and use it in their reading promotion activities and, 2) The acquisition of easy-to-read books and the use of easy-to-read books in reading promotion activities have increased over the last five years. A self-completion questionnaire was distributed to 44 public libraries in Sweden. The response was analyzed using quantitative data analysis, qualitative data analysis and content analysis. The analysis show that public libraries expose easy-to-read fiction and it is included to a great extent in book talks. An increase in the acquisition of easy-to-read books has been experienced as well as in the extent to which they are recommended to readers.

The aim of this study is to examine what view librarians have on reading promotion with focus on their work with reading groups for people with print disabilities. The study is based on four semi-structured interviews with librarians. The results from the interviews were analyzed with Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theory on different kinds of reading promotion roles.The study shows that the librarians in charge of reading groups for people with print disabilities mostly used their abilities of literature and marketing, but the pedagogical and human role were also found in the results. The reading group also turned out to have, outside the theories, a clear social meaning. This reveals that it is not only the literature that is important in the reading groups for print disabled people.The conclusion shows that the librarians in the study were using the reading group not only as a reading promotion activity but also as a marketing activity and as a place for the print disabled to socialize with other people.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how storytellersat the public library use the story-time topromote literature and libraries. Story-tellers ownpersonality and their own meaning of stories canaffect the story-time and the visitors view ofliterature and the library. Studies also show that agood story-time can affect the visitors which supportthe libraries in a positive way. Jofrid KarnerSmidt’s theory is used to analyze and discuss theresults. Four qualitative interviews are made withstory-tellers at public libraries. The results in thisthesis indicate that story-tellers are competent storytellersand distinguished promoters of literature andlibraries. Unfortunately the time the story-tellershave for doing the story-time as qualitative as theylike is not enough.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis has been to see in what way the relationship between the librarians' views on the users, and their views on the librarian acting as an intermediary, impacts on the choice of reading and on the way in which activities are designed in direct literature mediation toward adult public library users. The investigation has been based on four semi-structured interviews. A qualitative content analysis has been conducted within a thematic framework based on Jofrid Karner Smidt's mediation roles (1994) and Carl Gustav Johannsen's user images (2009). The key findings are that the librarian most often acts in the capacity of authority or as a critic (Smidt, 1994); however, in a process of personalisation and socialisation, in addition she takes the position as a normal being (Grøn & Balling, 2012; Smidt, 1994). Moreover, we have found that the librarians' views on the user vary depending on whether the mediation is planned or spontaneous – from this follows that she designs the mediation either vertically/authoritatively or horizontally/collaboratively (Grøn & Balling, 2012). Following from previous research (Hansson, 2005; Schreiber, 2006), we have, moreover, identified a new mediation role, i.e. the librarian as a social worker, and a new user image, i.e. the user as a normal being.

The aim of this thesis can be split up into three parts. First, to examine if public libraries in Sweden provide a selection of comic books and graphic novels suitable for youths. Second, to seek out how many of those libraries use comic books and graphic novels in their literature promotion with youths. Third, to investigate if there are any connections and similarities between the libraries that do. Also, a hypothesis proclaiming that most libraries do have comic book departments designed for youths and that libraries in big cities use comic books in literature promotion more often than libraries in small cities, is tested in the study. The results are based on a survey that was distributed to 290 libraries, out of which 192 responded. The results indicate that most libraries have youth departments and departments for comic books but that a small majority, mostly in larger cities, have a comic book department designed to be interesting for youths. A majority of the libraries surveyed have used comic books in some sort of literature promoting activity but there is a clear distinction between libraries in larger cities and libraries in smaller cities where the big city libraries were more likely to have used comic books in their literature promotion. Most of the connections and similarities between libraries working with comic books are connected to the population of the city in which the library is located and with the library's work for youths in general.

This thesis deals with questions about competences and qualities that librarians inpublic libraries find that they need to be qualified suppliers of literature (books andmagazines).Our aim is to problematize the competence of the profession in relation to promotingliterature, knowledge in literature and reading habits. We want to know what librariansthemselves think about their own competences when it comes to supplying andpromoting literature. Does it have to be a leisure interest or do they get the possibility toread during working hours?What do librarians think it means to be a qualified promotor of literature and how dothey acquire the right competence? Do they believe that their competence correspondswith the occupational requirements? How much of their knowledge about literature andpromoting literature comes from personal interest and commitment?We primarily used the theories about competence by Per-Erik Ellström. One of thetheories is the one of implicit and explicit knowledge. We also used Daniel Goleman’stheories about emotional competence.We interviewed six librarians that all work daily with literature promotion. We foundthat our informants are all competent and very dedicated to their work and that theypossess many of the competences that Goleman call emotional. But they do spend a lotof their free time on work. We think it would be useful with more time for librarians toread books and develop their competence at work. It would also be useful with acommon strategy when it comes to literature promotion and also a common and generaldescription on what ‘knowledge in literature’ really means. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this thesis is to study the reading habits of Swedish librarians visualized by librarians from Götabiblioteken – a collaboration of 14 public libraries in mid-Sweden – focusing on the reading done on their spare time, even if work-related. We started with a survey sent out to 74 librarians in October 2013, answered by 56, and followed up by interviewing 7 of them in November.We tried to answer these questions:To what extent does the working librarians read on their spare time compared to before they started working?What literature do they read, now compared to before they started working?To what extent does their perception of what they should have read affect their private reading?In what way does a librarian in the beginning of their career differ in reading habits from the reading habits of a librarian with many years in the profession?The result of our study shows that most of the librarians read as much or more than before they started to work. They are more selective in their choice of literature and are affected by their work in it in different ways. Their perception of what is needed affect their reading habits, but this seems to come from themselves and not from other librarians or the public. The answer to our last question is inconclusive, but it seems like the pressure lifts with experience.Librarians in this study put a lot of their free time into their work, in the form of reading. / Program: Bibliotekarie