The main purpose of this thesis was to examine how hospital librarians worked with young people at a children’s and young people’s hospital in Sweden. We wanted to see how they promoted their health with culture and cultural means such as book trolleys. We did a case study, and made three qualitative interviews with the hospital librarians. The purpose was also to find out what the hospital librarians thought of young peoples. As a complement we also used textual analysis to analyse a pilot study and a few monthly programs concerning an ongoing culture project in the library. The purpose with these documents was also to see how health could be promoted by culture, and to see how young people were described. We have used two theories. One involves what roles hospital librarians fitted into while dealing with young persons. The other one deals with different aspects of health. The role that emerged most clearly among the librarians was one called the rehabilitative role. We could also find traces of this role in the pilot study, which we believe indicates why all three librarians tended to fit into that role. The librarians seemed to do their best to involve young people in the activities in the library. In contradiction to this, the documents didn’t involve young people very much; they mostly mentioned ways of working with children. Young people were only involved in a few cases. We also found that both the librarians and the documents were striving to promote health among the patients. To do this they tried to see to the well being of the whole person. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Bachelor`s thesis is to examine what librarians who work with a biblioterapeutic method called ”Reading club” at a Swedish children´s hospital, think of their own professional identity. I have collected the data for the thesis with help from qualitative, semi-structured interviews and then analyzed the material I gathered by dividing the answers into different themes. In the analysis I then used the themes to structure my work. I have built my results on the theory in Andrew Abbott’s book The system of professions, about how professions clams jurisdiction in different arenas (1988). The librarians in my study describe that their working place, tools and the way they approach the children and youth at the hospital has changed since they started to work with the Reading club. They can clearly see that the reading sessions bring “KASAM” (which means a sense of coherence) to the children. Now, their most important tool is the book and they see it as if the book itself carries KASAM- potential. They have a close cooperation with the play therapy and have made it from the wards in to the rooms of the sickest children. Even though they describe their work as “bibliotherapeutic” they hesitate to call themselves bibliotherapists. To make distance towards nearby occupations they systematically evaluate their work and develop methods to define themselves and their work.

The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the collection management at five different hospital libraries´ children and youth’s section to discern different roles of the collections. We made qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians. The purpose was also to see how the collection development affected the different roles of the collections. We used two theories. One involves six dimensions of collection development and the other involves the purposes of collections which are divided in to four different roles. The hospital librarians had the users in mind when working with the collections. The users have different needs, not only because they are children and young people but also because they are patients. We could see that many different circumstances had an impact on the collection development, such as limited and narrow spaces, short treatment times for patients and low circulation on children and youth material. The three roles we could distinguish were the Dispensing role, the Advisory role and the Symbolic role. The librarians tried to have a diverse range of materials to satisfy the different needs. The librarians made certain collections visible by different headlines that would appeal to the users. We could see that materials with medical substance were prioritized in many ways. This material is important for both patients and the medical staff. Medical material also justified the patient hospital libraries existence in times when the medical libraries get more and more space. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of bibliotherapy at hospitals and also what knowledge of and insights on bibliotherapy a few Swedish hospital librarians have. Questions investigated are: What role do the hospital librarians think literature has in the treatment of a patient? What is their view on their role as a hospital librarian and do they believe that they can have a part in the treatment of a patient? Is the concept bibliotherapy commonly used or is there another term in use? How important is the linkage between healing and literature? In this study, the view on bibliotherapy is limited to a hospital perspective. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate bibliotherapy at the hospital. Six qualitative interviews with hospital librarians were performed at three general or combined general/medical hospital libraries. The study shows that the hospital librarians have little knowledge of bibliotherapy and that none of them work with bibliotherapy in an organized form. Literature and its effect on human health is something they all have reflected on, and several of them believe that part of their work could be conceptualized as bibliotherapy. They are convinced that literature can give a patient satisfaction by easing the long hours of waiting and by supplying a sense of identity and insights. The hospital librarians also consider themselves being representatives of the “ordinary world” as they don’t dress in white coats. An important function would then be that the hospital librarian stands out as a human being of flesh and blood that takes the time to see, listen and talk to the patient from a non medical perspective. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine the importance of the hospital library for nurses´ information literacy. The hospital library can play a key role for nurses interested in evidence-based approaches to their work. Two main research questions are posed: In what ways does the hospital library work to support nurses´ information literacy? How do nurses view the hospital library as an information resource? To address these questions three hospital librarians and three nurses are interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Christine Bruce’s Seven faces of information literacy were used in the analysis to examine varying experiences of information literacy. The results show that the most important categories relation to information literacy are; information technology, information sources, information process and information control. What seems to be of great significance for the nurses is the possibility to use the hospital librarians as a resource. Their competence is regarded as invaluable and of significant importance to nurses that are library users. Context also seems to be important for information seeking processes. The hospital library seems to be more important for nurses when they are doing research or studying, than in the context of clinical work.

The aim of this study is to explore the information work of medical librarians regarding the information need of nurses and how to facilitate this in the best way. Five semi-structured interviews with medical librarians were performed to get their perspective regarding nurses information need, the information need of the librarian and their role in supporting nurses information seeking in their evidence-based practice. Then analysing the results using theory of professions and adding the concepts of cognitive authority and legitimacy. The width of nurse practices makes a general information need hard to pinpoint and with that a difficulty to have a general working solution tailored to every practise. The results further show lack of time as a major issue, ignorance of the librarian's ability to help is another, paired with an issue of reaching nurses to advertise what the library can do. Marketing of the library service could give the library an even bigger role in providing nurses with relevant new research to help in their evidence-based practice. Surveys to pinpoint information needs of separate nurse practices to tailor specific efforts, possibly paired with an investment in the library even better.

Bibliotherapy is the practice of using literature for health-promoting purposes and is conducted worldwide using various methods and targeting different groups. In a Swedish context, bibliotherapy has begun to receive attention in both the general public and the library sector. Although previous research indicates bibliotherapy's health-promoting effects, collaboration in the field is relatively unexplored, especially within healthcare settings. This bachelor’s thesis studies the experiences and collaboration of hospital librarians and hospital staff within the shared bibliotherapy practice in hospital libraries. Six semi-structured, in-depth interviews with hospital librarians and other hospital professionals were conducted. The results show that successful bibliotherapy collaborations between these professions not only occur but also help to increase the visibility and legitimacy of hospital librarians in healthcare. Additionally, bibliotherapy contributes to the creation of meaningful collaborations between colleagues as well as patients. By applying the elements from Shove, Pantzar and Watson’s theory of practice, we were able to further analyze bibliotherapy as a shared practice in hospital libraries. Conclusions show that collaboration within bibliotherapy can legitimize both the bibliotherapy practice and hospital librarians.