A qualitative study of high school student teachers' ideas about libraries and school libraries.Interviews have been conducted with future teachers about the library's role in their education,their views on library functions in high school and whether they as teachers will use theschool library. The results show that the students have had some instruction concerninghow to use the library as students, but very little as regards their future teaching. The professorsof teacher education focus on the fact that the library should be used in high schoolteaching, not how to use it. Despite this, the student teachers look very positively upon libraries.Libraries play an important part in their education and they are all sure that they asteachers will use the school library, which includes interacting with the librarian. To them, themost important school library function is to allow pupils to seek information.

This thesis investigates collaboration between teachers and librarians concerning reading support activities in senior high schools in Sweden. The following questions were posed: 1. How do the teachers and school librarians cooperate when it comes to promoting reading? 2. To what degree of cooperation is that? And how is the level of cooperation perceived? 3. What factors determine the level of cooperation? The research method used is semistructured qualitative interviews with altogether two school librarians and two teachers. The interviews have been analyzed out of two theoretical perspectives: Lena Folkessons’s three professional dimensions and Patricia Montiel-Overall’s four models of teacher and librarian collaborations. The results are in line with previous research and an important conclusion is that the cooperation between teachers and librarians doesn’t exist as much as one could imagine concerning reading support activities. Personal contacts in school between teachers and librarians will develop lower grades of collaboration. When the school library has got an obvious place in the school organisation and when the school management is highly supportive to cooperation, a higher grade of collaboration is reached and also more reading support activities can take place in school. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this study is to investigate• how a professional librarian can support the work with pupils, age six to twelve years, in their reading and linguistic development• how the conditions at the school have to be for this to become possible• what kind of attitudes the teachers have, and how they relate to the impact of a librarian for the pupils reading and linguistic development.The methods used are analyses of steering documents concerning school libraries and analyses of the means of the local school culture. The latter has been carried out by literature studies and through interviews of eight teachers and two school librarians. The result of the interviews showed a limited insight into how a professional librarian can support and assist teachers and pupils in the work with reading and linguistic development. They also showed the influence of existing traditions and local school culture for the use of a librarian’s services, and also how all the teachers, once they have become used to the services a librarian can provide, now find their support invaluable. Our final conclusions are that Swedish schools today easily can choose to rationalize school library activities, including to renounce the engagement of a professional librarian. The documents that govern the school activities allow great potential for school leaders and/or school politicians to encourage good library activities with a professional librarian. But this potential can be jeopardized by the teachers involved and their attitudes towards the usefulness of a professional librarian. The attitudes seem to originate from local traditions, and a lack of knowledge about the librarians´ competence. We found this a matter of not knowing what to demand – once experienced you know its benefits. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the work of school librarians with pupils with dyslexia. In addition, the study investigates the cooperation between school librarians and pedagogues concerning the pupils with dyslexia. The two theoretical points of departure are: theory of profession and a model of cooperation built upon Louise Limberg’s and Lena Folkesson’s three categories of librarians’ experiences of cooperation with teachers. Qualitative semi- structured interviews with eight qualified librarians constitute the empirical material. The empirical material has been analysed both descriptively and theoretically. The major findings are that school librarians regard their competence, when working with pupils with dyslexia, to be the knowledge of literature and technical means of assistance. They understand their role to be mediating and consulting as they connect the library resources with the pupil or the pedagogue. The lack of academically achieved knowledge is experienced as an obstacle when working with dyslectic pupils and limits the cooperation with both teachers and special education teachers. A shift in the behaviour of school librarians is recognized as they tend to renounce their jurisdictional claims concerning information seeking and book-matching in a greater extent towards the special educationalist than to the teacher. Another result is that the school librarian experiences the attitude of the pupil with dyslexia as the most important factor conditioning their work. The understanding is that it is nearly impossible to aid a person who does not want to be helped or who fails to recognize his handicap. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate if and how the school library in Linnéskolan in Älmhult is working towards the learning goals that can be find in the different school documents that are represented by the municipality of Älmhult. This includes goals for the school, for the school library and for the subject of social studies in the ninth grade. We also want to investigate if the school library helps the students to reach the learning goals and if there are any factors that can be improved in the school library. We have used an evidence based approach to define factors in the school library that can be improved. In the chapter that describes our theoretical approach, we have also discussed three different pedagogical theories; teacher-centered teaching, individual constructivism and social constructivism. Our intention is to define the learning goals in the different school documents and connect these to the most adaptable pedagogical theories. Our empirical data consists of observations and qualitative interviews. We have also analyzed the school documents to define the pedagogical theories in these. Our results show that it is an individual constructivism that can be defined in the different school documents. Although, we realized that this is not always the fact when it comes to the real practice in the school library. Our study also showed us that the school library is indeed working towards the learning goals, and is helping the students reach their goals. Although, we found a few factors that we believe can be improved.

Our purpose with this master thesis is to look at school libraries in two separate municipal contexts and with the help of case studies try to reach understanding of how the municipal organisation in general influences and co-operates with day to day reality. In order to achieve this objective we have posed the following questions: What importance are school libraries given in relation to questions of overall management and goals in the greater organisation? How are resources distributed and management allocated in the two cases? How are the various school libraries in the two municipalities organised when it comes to workload, employee role assumption and teamwork? In the section dealing with theory and previous research we present the theoretical viewpoint and the literature of importance for our subject. This includes a short history, reports and laws, and also some research and theory on school library organisation. Our method has been to study the circumstances in two separate municipalities, Varberg and Växjö. We have interviewed a number of people whom we believe to possess relevant knowledge of school library curriculum and organisation in relation to such concepts as management, resources, role assumption and teamwork. These sources are school librarians, chief librarians, and also the library board members for each municipality. To attain a deeper understanding we have complemented our study with the review of internal reports such as curriculum and goal proposals. The main conclusions of this master thesis are that the choice of school library organisation seems to be of minor importance when it comes to the greater organisation context but on the other hand these organisations are of great importance when it comes to learning and reading activities in the school context. We also note two main aspects concerning function of the school library: “the school aspect” and “the library aspect”. When it comes to relating organisation to these two functions it seems that in the municipality of Växjö the school aspect” is dominant when it comes to the municipality of Varberg it is rather the “library aspect” that dominates. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this paper is to study if implementation of a school library management system called FreeLib has created favourable conditions for the school librarians to cooperate with other professions and become a more forward working place. I have studied relevant literature about school libraries, organisation, digital libraries and documents that regulate school and library activities today as well in the past. In order to fulfil my purpose I have done a qualitative survey with six school librarians from Swedish primary schools with pupils at the age of 6 -16 years old. To identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities I found in the material I used a method called SWOT analysis. According to this study the use of the digital FreeLib system has developed a better teamwork between school librarians at different schools. On the other hand the school librarians have not used the opportunities to cooperate with teachers or develop an organization chart. Consequently FreeLib has not become a changing point for the school library. One possible reason may be that the perception of school libraries still shows a picture of a place where you just pick a book to read in your classroom, which makes it more difficult to highlight and develop the school librarians’ activities among others.

The aim of this study is to examine how teachers and school librarians view the concept of information literacy in relation to their students, and to find factors that affect their undertakings to make their students information literate. In order to accomplish this, qualitative interviews have been carried out with teachers and school librarians at four Swedish junior high schools. The theoretical framework of this study is the seven faces of information literacy developed by Christine Bruce. The empirical material has been analysed firstly by finding themes that are of importance for the work with information literacy, and secondly by placing the interviewees’ commentaries on information literacy in Bruce´s seven faces of information literacy. This in order to be able to compare the two groups and find what differences and similarities there are. The study implies that factors such as the views of information literacy, the way to perform teaching, the division of responsibilities, the collaboration situation and the views of the students have impact on how well the students are able to develop information literacy. The study also implies that teachers and school librarians theoretically have much the same views on these issues, but that practice shows that there are differences. The study also implies that there are changes that can be made to improve the situation, and among them are mutual planning for librarians and teachers, incorporating the teaching of information literacy with subject teaching, and more focus on the role of the school library. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka lärares syn på skolbiblioteket och dess funktion samt om samverkan mellan lärare och skolbibliotekarie sker. Vi vill även undersöka om man kan se något samband mellan de ämnen läraren undervisar i och hur de använder skolbiblioteket. Våra frågeställningar är följande: • Hur ser lärare på skolbibliotekets roll i den pedagogiska verksamheten? • Samverkar lärare och skolbibliotekarier? • Kan man se något samband mellan de ämnen läraren undervisar i och hur de använder skolbiblioteket? För att få svar på våra frågor har vi utfört en enkätundersökning med öppna frågor på två skolor med lärare som undervisar i år 2–6. Vi lämnade ut 50 enkäter varav 36 besvarades, detta gav en svarsfrekvens på 72 %. Resultatet visar att lärarna i vår studie generellt ser skolbiblioteket som en mycket viktig del i skolans verksamhet. Resultatet visar även att de som undervisar i svenska använder mycket skönlitteratur, de som undervisar i samhällsorienterade och naturorienterade ämnen använder mest facklitteratur. Skolbibliotekariens roll ses som viktig och betydelsefull, samarbetet med skolbibliotekarien påverkar synen av skolbiblioteket och är en avgörande faktor för hur det används.

Abstrakt Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka skolbibliotek och dess betydelse för svenskämnets litteraturundervisning. Materialinsamlingen bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med fem skolbibliotekarier. Intervjupersonernas utsagor diskuteras utifrån teorier som behandlar ämnesområdet ur olika infallsvinklar. Dessa teorier omfattar resonemang kring: skolbibliotekariens roll och uppgifter; skönlitteratur och främjandet av läslust samt skolbibliotekariens sociala relationer med lärarna. I resultatdiskussionen framgår bland annat att skolbiblioteket kan utnyttjas för att låta eleverna komma i kontakt med annan litteratur än läroböcker, exempelvis skönlitteratur. Vidare kan svenskläraren dra nytta av skolbibliotekariens expertkunskap om litteratur. Ett annat sätt på vilket skolbibliotekarien kan bidra till undervisningen, är att delta aktivt i denna, exempelvis genom att hålla i boksamtal. Avslutningsvis pekar studien på att ett väl fungerande samarbete mellan lärare och skolbibliotekarie är centralt för att skolbibliotekets kapacitet ska kunna utnyttjas maximalt. För att ett sådant samarbete ska vara möjlig krävs att både lärare och skolbibliotekarier besitter kunskap om varandras yrkesroll och kapacitet.