Swedish university libraries traditionally collect recreational readingmaterial only to support the teaching and research interests of theirinstitutions. However many university libraries hold a substantial yetunspecified collection of popular fiction. This thesis investigates theextent of these collections and examines academic librarians' viewsabout students' recreational reading in the academic context and theirattitudes towards the role of fiction and of readers' advisory inacademic libraries. The theoretical framework includes literature andresearch about the benefits of reading for pleasure, collections' rolesand readers' advisory strategies. The empirical material was gatheredthrough quantitative surveys sent to academic librarians in Sweden.The results show that academic librarians are positive about thebenefits of recreational reading for university students. However themajority of them do not believe that it is their responsibility to provideleisure reading material or promote extracurricular reading. Based onthe literature review, on the theoretical framework and on the researchfindings, recommendations are made with respect to further researchand readers' advisory strategies.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera nöjesläsning hos vuxna talboksanvändare. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer har empiri kring sökstrategier vid litteraturval för nöjesläsning, medieplattformar och övrig teknik som används iläsningen, samt beskrivningar av läsupplevelser samlats in och analyserats. Identiteten som talboksläsare är viktig för respondenterna, det är genom denna de bygger upp sociala nätverk online och läsningen blir ett sätt att lindra ensamhet och ångest. De tekniska hjälpmedel som används bidrar till den känsla av kontroll och självständighet som möjligheten att ladda ner talböcker från onlinekatalogen Legimus bidragit till. De teknikproblem som uppstår relativt ofta förtar inte från det höga värde talboksläsarna tillsätter Legimus.

This study conducts a qualitative examination based on five interviews with children’s librarians. The aim is to bring up and analyse the attitudes of the librarians towards reading promotion activities for children outside of school and investigate their experiences of participation in a summer reading challenge project.The first theory used to analyse is Jofrid Karner Smidt’s thesis of five different roles that a librarian can have on literary preferences. The second is her theory of how librarians view their promotion of literature.My interviews shows that the librarians in the study have a common opinion and enthusiasm regarding children's pleasure reading. They consider that their most important task is to show them the joy in reading. Promote reading work outside of school requires marketing in a different way than the same work at school. The libraries spend a lot of time and energy to present themselves in different ways. It is important to constantly seek new ways of working and try to reach out to the children.A concept like Sommarboken with a common purpose and materials and follow up meetings is well considered. The various libraries design themselves their summer meetings as they want. At the meetings, the children have the opportunity to the all-important conversation about their reading, both with each other and the librarian. The lustful and undemanding in the arrangement is something that all the interviewees represent in their profession. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Denna kvantitativa studie behandlar blivande svensklärares läsvanor och attityder till läsning av skönlitteratur. Data har samlats in med hjälp av webbenkäter som skickats till samtliga lärarstudenter på en svensk högskola, med inriktning mot år 4-6. Bland de svarande kunde fyra olika läsartyper med särskiljande läsvanor identifieras. Av resultatet framgår att de som läser kontinuerligt uppvisar en mer positiv attityd till läsning av skönlitteratur. Studien indikerar därmed att mängden läsning som utförs av en individ till viss del påverkas av vilken uppfattning och tilltro som finns till läsningens positiva effekter. Resultatet visar också att lärarstudenter som grupp saknar en gemensam syn på litteraturens värde och status. En tydlig polarisering kan skönjas i uppfattningen om skönlitteraturens värde i skolans undervisning och för det demokratiska samhället, vilket indikerar en viss diskrepans mellan skönlitteraturens status hos blivande svensklärare och skolans läsfrämjande uppdrag. Sammantaget visar studien att det inte är en självklarhet att framtida lärare tillskriver litteraturen ett högt värde i skolsammanhang eller själva läser i särskilt hög utsträckning.

This thesis investigates adult readers’ experiences of pleasure reading. The view of reading taken in this thesis is derived from reader-response theory. The theoretical framework consists of the idea that reading is a transaction between the reader and the text. Through semi-structured interviews with five readers, the role of pleasure reading in the context of the reader's life is explored. The thesis examines both the contribution that pleasure reading makes to the reader's life and, on the other hand, how the reader's life context and personal experiences affects the reading experience. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results confirm that the readers’ lives and personal experiences has a great impact on the reading experience and what the reader derive from reading. Interview responses show, in line with previous research, that the readers’ own preoccupations work as a filter so that the reader pays particular attention to parts of the text that address their lives. The results show that, when describing a good reading experience, readers highlight narrative or language in varying degrees. Also, the results show that through reading for pleasure a person's mindset and ideas can be transformed.

This thesis investigates through qualitiative interviews whether six adult female learners of Swedish as a second language, with a short study background from their home countries, have developed pleasure reading habits in Swedish during their studies at SFI (Swedish For Immigrants). Another aspect that is explored is the school’s, and school library’s work with the promotion of literature and pleasure reading. Six students and two librarians were interviewed. The interviewed students have limited experience of pleasure reading in their native languages. As pleasure reading is known to promote literacy in a second language, reading in Swedish could become a factor in finishing SFI faster. The findings show that the students do engage in free voluntary reading or pleasure reading in Swedish, at school or at home. Some of the school’s activities seem to have a stronger connection with this outcome than others, for instance classroom time set aside for sustained reading, a choice between printed and digital materials, and assistance in finding literature that is sufficiently challenging. The teachers and the librarians both play important roles in reading promotion. The students’ own awareness of the effect of pleasure reading on their language skills also seems to be a motivating factor.

This paper presents how the students’ motivation for reading pleasure is caught in school. It is also about how the teachers choose which kind of reading materials they use in the education to give the students the best possible conditions for a lifelong reading pleasure. What motivates the students in the primary school to read, not just because they must, but also by their own free will? Through my work, I put previous research on reading interest, motivation and self-confidence against what pupils in grade 3 consider the education in reading give them. The pupils’ experiences about whether they can influence the content in their educational material also effects how well motivated they are to assimilate the ability in reading. My survey is based om questionnaires for pupils in grade 3 and active Swedish teachers in the same year, the reading motivation and the choice of materials were studied, but also how much access to other books they have. A great access to books favors reading enthusiasm, both at school and at home. But it takes more than books to make students motivated to enjoy reading. / Den här uppsatsen handlar om hur elevernas motivation till nöjesläsning väcks inom skolan. Den handlar även om hur lärarna väljer vilken typ av läsläror de använder sig av i undervisningen för att ge eleverna så bra förutsättningar som möjligt för en livslång läslust. Vad motiverar eleverna på lågstadiet till att läsa, inte enbart för att de måste utan även av egen fri vilja? Genom mitt arbete ställer jag tidigare forskning kring läsintresse, motivation och självförtroende mot vad elever i årskurs 3 anser om undervisningen i svenska. Elevernas upplevelser kring huruvida de kan påverka undervisningens innehåll spelar även den in på hur pass motiverade de är att tillgodogöra sig förmågan i läsning. Min undersökning utgår ifrån enkätundersökningar till elever i årskurs 3 samt verksamma svenska lärare i samma årskurs studerades läsmotivationen och valet av material, men även tillgång till andra böcker. En stor tillgång till böcker gynnar läslusten, både i skolan och i hemmen. Men det krävs mer än böcker för att göra elever motiverade till nöjesläsning.

This study aims to find an understanding of how pleasure reading outside of a classroom context can assist in the development of English as a second language. The study primarily seeks to examine what teachers and parents say about how the access to and active reading of English books in children’s home environment can benefit their language skills development in the classroom, and this has been done through qualitative interviews. The interviewees were categorized into two groups, one group consisting of four teachers working as English teachers in grades 4-6 at four different schools, and the other consisting of parents of children currently studying in grades 4-6. The results of the study show that most of the interviewed parents encourage their children to read in English, however most of the mentioned children engage more in pleasure reading in Swedish rather than English. The study also shows that the interviewed teachers share the opinion that students who read in English during their free time bring better comprehension of and proficiency in the English language to the classroom. / Den här studien syftar till att få en förståelse för hur nöjesläsning utanför ett klassrumssammanhang kan assistera i utvecklingen av engelska som andraspråk. Studien riktar sig i första hand mot att undersöka vad lärare och föräldrar säger om hur tillgången till och läsningen av böcker på engelska i ett barns hemmiljö kan gynna utvecklingen av deras språkkunskaper i klassrummet, och detta har gjorts genom kvalitativa intervjuer. De intervjuade deltagarna kategoriserades i två grupper, en grupp bestående av fyra lärare som arbetar som engelsklärare i årskurserna 4-6 på fyra olika skolor, och den andra gruppen bestående av fyra föräldrar till barn som går i årskurs 4-6. Resultaten av studien visar att de flesta intervjuade föräldrarna uppmuntrar sina barn att nöjesläsa på engelska, men att de flesta av de nämnda barnen ägnar sig mer åt nöjesläsning på svenska. Studien visar också att de intervjuade lärarna delar åsikten att elever som läser på engelska under sin fritid har med sig bättre förståelse och språkfärdighet i det engelska språket till klassrummet.