The purpose of this investigation is to study how librarians experience bookcrossing. We focused on the two following questions: Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing as literature exchange and reading support activity? Which variations are there in librarians conceptions of bookcrossing compared to other methods of literature exchange and reading support? Bookcrossing is an international book club where you share your books by leaving them at public places. The thesis is focused on librarians’ conceptions and not the conceptions of members of bookcrossing. Fictional literature is central in our investigation. To answer the questions we conducted interviews with nine librarians at eight different libraries. By using a phenomenographical approach our analysis resulted in four categories of description for each question. For the first question the categories were: bookcrossing as publicity, bookcrossing as a new way of thinking, bookcrossing as being democratic and bookcrossing as an activity at the library. The second question resulted in the following four categories: bookcrossing as an alternative to other methods, bookcrossing needs development to be reading supportive, bookcrossing as a non serious event and bookcrossing as a different selection of books. After the second analysis three categories of conceptions emerged: bookcrossing as an advantage for the library, bookcrossing as a problematic method for the library and bookcrossing as unimportant for the library. The conclusion of this study is that librarians do not conceptualise bookcrossing as a good method for reading support. But the majority of them had a positive experience of bookcrossing and they conceptualise that bookcrossing results in positive attention in the media. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this paper is to explore branch librarians’ ideals for mediating fiction and their view on the literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council. The study is based on the following questions: How do branch librarians reflect about mediating fiction? How do they express their view and their work with literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council? And which ideals of mediating can be distinguished from these expressions? To answer these questions a qualitative examination based on interviews with four branch librarians where used. The empiric material where then analysed by Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theory about different ideals for mediating fiction. Smidt’s theory is published in her doctor’s dissertation Mellom elite og publikum. Following conclusions are drawn from the study: we saw that there are multiple ideals regarding how to mediate fiction and that these ideals often co-operate side by side of each other but conflicts do occur in some cases. The librarians have a positive view on the literature that is distributed by the Swedish Arts council and believes that the books contribute to a broad and high quality library collection. The librarians express a wish to increase the loans for these books by mediating or market them. We believe that a solution could be that the Swedish Arts council contributed not only with books but also with some marketing assistance to the libraries.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to study how public librarians’ view mediation of fiction: the knowledge needed, the thoughts expressed about their own and other adults reading of fiction and how the informants define their roles as mediators of fiction. The method used was qualitative interviews with six librarians at main libraries in Swedish cities of different sizes. The theoretical starting points are Louise M. Rosenblatt’s reader-response theory, Michail Bachtin’s theory of speech genres and Åse Tveit’s and Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theories about mediation of fiction. For the empirical material concerning the librarians knowledge in this field of the library work the theory of three different kinds of knowledge; episteme, techne and phronesis, was applied. Furthermore, the term communities of practice was used regarding how the knowledge is acquired. The results show that reading is regarded an important activity with various functions, which the informants reflect over in their work with fiction. Three roles as mediators of fiction can be identified, not excluding one another, but instead possible to combine. The role that emphasise dialog with users is viewed as very important and is also the role that can be seen to play a great part in the development of the work with mediation of fiction. The knowledge required for this part of the librarian profession is shown to be complex and acquired in different ways. Several ideas about how the work can develop in the future are expressed.

The aim of this study is to look at how librarians express theirpart in reading groups organized by public libraries. Thestudy is based on interviews with seven public librarians insouth regions of Sweden. The main theory used to analyse isfound in the article Bibliotekaren som litteraturformidler(1994) written by the Norwegian librarian Jofrid KarnerSmidt, where she talks about five different roles that alibrarian can have in this context and how they appear. Threeof these roles were used in this study: the pedagogue, theliterature expert and the marketer.The interviewed librarians mostly had a similar view on howthey look at their role in the reading group. They saw theirpurpose as to provide all kinds of people with a possibility tojoin in discussions about mutual interests and share variousopinions about books. Some librarians saw it as a chance tohelp the members of the group to read books they mightnever have read otherwise, and to learn more from eachother.The librarians in this study sometimes use other media likemovies or audio books for their work with reading groups. Itis also a chance for the librarians to heighten their ownexpertise, to learn more about their users; and how they feel.Furthermore, the reading group provides means to market allthe services a library can give. The reading groups are also away to market the expertise of the librarians against othercolleagues and the politicians. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how librarians in a Swedish public library view and discuss mediation of fiction. The questions posed in this study are: How do the librarians want to work with mediation of fiction? What type of literature should be provided according to them? How do they express that they relate and should relate to their users? The theoretical starting-points are three categories extracted from Jofrid Karner Smidt’s doctor’s dissertation Mellom elite og publikum: the approach to users, strategies for mediation, and ideals for mediation. The empirical material was gathered through focus group interviews with librarians in a public library. This material was analyzed using the categories above. The results show that the librarians manifest a traditional view on mediation of fiction and the strategies used for mediation. The user group primarily discussed consists of readers of popular literature who are considered in need of help and guidance. The librarians have an ambition to improve the literary preferences of these users to what the librarians consider high quality literature. In contrast, they express a fear to be looked upon as condemning and therefore tend to suppress their personal literary views. The study poses questions about high versus low literary quality and whose needs should be addressed considering mediation of fiction. The result shows that the librarians focus solely on one of many user groups and therefore risk excluding other user groups. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Mediation of fiction has always been one of the main tasks of the public library. The focus on information technology is often seen as a threat and competitor to this task. But technology can also offer new ways to mediate fiction, and the aim of this thesis is to examine how library websites and blogs can be used for this purpose. The research questions are:• What forms of fiction mediating material exist on library websites and blogs?• How is the fiction mediating material presented?• Are there any differences between the fiction mediating working methods on websites and blogs compared with those in physical libraries?The thesis is based on a qualitative content analysis of eight Swedish public library websites and three blogs, and on a theoretical frame work including literature and research on mediation of fiction, library websites and blogs, web design and usability. The result shows many similarities between mediation of fiction in physical libraries and on the Internet. The advantages of the medium could be better used. Old systems and non-integrated catalogues cause problems and make it difficult to develop the library websites and allow users to contribute. On most of the examined websites users and librarians are not yet involved in an active conversation about literature. Library websites has potential to create a positive image of the library, attract new users and increase the interest in literature. But a high quality website demands resources. Regional and national cooperation is probably necessary.

My aim is to examine the special form of interaction between users of the shut-in service and the responsible librarians. My purpose is to examine how mediating of literature can be pictured in correlation with shut-in services. How do librarians describe their experiences of the shut-in service? What roles of mediating can be perceived? How can interaction interpreted in the context of the shut-in service?The material was acquired by doing qualitative interviews of five librarians who works with shut-in service. This study is based on the theory of Åse Kristine Tveit. Her model of mediating and her theory on the roles of mediating are the bases of my analysis. My conclusion is that librarians find it difficult to market their visiting work and that their relationship with shut-in service users is particular.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how libraries use thetools and ideas from library 2.0 in their reading promotionwork. We also want to include how librarians motivate thisuse and whatever merits and faults they encounter. We haveperformed document studies and interviews which we thenanalyzed with qualitative content analysis. Our theoreticframework in this study which we also used as a part of ourcoding scheme in the analysis was a model over the conceptlibrary 2.0 developed by Holmberg, Huvila, Kronquist-Bergand Widén-Wulff. This model describes seven aspects oflibrary 2.0 which is users, participation, library and libraryservice, web and web 2.0, social aspects, technology andinteractivity. We can see that there is a multitude of toolsthat can be connected to library 2.0 and reading promotionbeing used by the libraries we investigated. The library toolswe found most relevant for our study where blogs, useradvice, catalogue and chat. Even if the libraries could offerthese tools there were widespread issues with low userparticipation. We think this may remove the possibilities forthe tools. The web sites with high user participation had astrong focus on the social aspect among the users andlibrarians. We think this may be of importance but requirefurther research. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the phenomenon called bookcrossing. To fulfill this I have asked the following research questions: Why do people participate in bookcrossing?What functions do books have for bookcrossers? The method used is qualitative, semi structured interviews. Four active bookcrossers have been interviewed. These interviews revealed that bookcrossing as an activity in a medium sized town is very small. It also revealed that many of the books that the respondents place out are never registered on the website, and probably get picked up by people who do not understand the concept of bookcrossing. Theories by Tveit and Ross have been used on the social function of books, and reading as a social activity. The results confirm the notion presented by Ross et. al, that reading is becoming an increasingly social and collective activity. One of the lessons learned from this study is that bookcrossing activity probably is greater in bigger cities. If a bigger city had been investigated, the result may have been much different. For bookcrossing to function well it probably requires a large population to draw from. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to examine the fiction promoting role of public librarians through their fiction displays. The study covers three problems: What reasons do public librarians give for their selection of displayed fiction? How do public librarians view fiction displays in relation to other promotion strategies? How do public librarians think that promotion through fiction displays will evolve in the future?The results of the study have been analyzed using Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theory of how public librarians view their promotion of fiction. The concepts used are promotion due to public demand, actively recommending and informative promotion, and through dialogue. To account for the problems investigated in the study, eight librarians have been questioned through semi-structured interviews. Observations of fiction displays were also made at the time of those interviews.Through their selections, the librarians aim to support the users’ reading habits as well as to challenge and broaden those habits. According to the informants, displays affect the number of loans, but the book covers are also significant. The librarians see fiction displays as an opportunity to display fiction that corresponds to their personal tastes. Speculating about the future, librarians find it likely that the selection of fiction displayed online will be more influenced by users’ demand. For the future of physical libraries, librarians hope that libraries will work harder to display fiction that is often overlooked. / Program: Bibliotekarie