The traditional library is in a state of crisis since its legitimacy was threatened by the declining status of the welfare state and the printed book medium. The study aims to regain a sense of the lost identity by comparing the institution's perceptions of reading with those of the sobriety movement of the early 20th century and the bibliotherapy representatives of today. Qualitative content analysis is used as a method to categorize and understand the reading perceptions of the reader communities mentioned above. The categories used are of a deductive character and distinguish whether the perception of reading is based on a conception of it as something characterized by the experience of the act or its instrumentality, as well as in reflective relation with the reader's self or not. The studied material is the membership newspaper of IOGT and a contemporary bibliotherapy blog. The results reached by the study point to other types of instrumentality used to legitimize reading by the reader communities, in contrast to the economic instrumentality which has gained influence in the library sphere. The social instrumentality of the bibliotherapy movement, characterized by social relations and integration, is uncovered in the materials. The role of the librarian supporting the reader's own knowledge acquirement is a feature that connects the contemporary librarian identity to bibliotherapy. The former now gains a language to express itself, something that has been missing since the identity crisis.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-26569 |
Date | January 2021 |
Creators | Hillberg, Kim |
Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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