The purpose of this masters´ thesis is to examine the attitudes of public librarians towards easy-to-read literature and see whether a connection between these attitudes and accessibility can be made. The study has been performed with a qualitative approach and consists of four depth interviews with emphasis on how librarians relate to and experience easy-to-read literature and its´ users. As complement to the depth interviews, two micro interviews were made. The study can be seen as a follow up to a survey I made 2005, commissioned by The centre for Easy- to-Read. As analytical tools the cultural sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu, with his concepts field, cultural capital and habitus, have been used. The results show that easy-to-read literature often seems to be disregarded at public libraries, and that the cause for this seems to have several facets. The following three main interrelated themes and factors are discernable from the empirical material: lack of knowledge (both in relation to the literature and the users), snobbery and feelings of shame. Lack of knowledge is related to a lack of education in the area of special media in large. An attitude of snobbishness is discerned in the area of special media in general and easy-to-read literature takes a position far down in the rather hierarchical institution of public libraries. Low wages as well as low status are said to be common to the area. In the analysis this is linked to the general low position of the easy-to-read literature in the literature field as a whole. In accordance with this there is as well little symbolic capital and power to gain, whether you be a librarian, producer, author or publisher. The general associations connected to easy-to-read literature as being dull and uninteresting can probably be seen as a consequence of low expectations from all operators involved. The last factor; feelings of shame, seem to be prominent in connection with this kind of literature. The informants avoid showing users the easy-to-read literature, considering it shameful to assume that the user has a reading disability. Taken together, these factors make the accessibility of the easy-to-read literature at the public libraries unsatisfying. / Uppsatsnivå: D
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-19076 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Esaiasson, Karin |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap / Bibliotekshögskolan, University of Borås/Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) |
| 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 |
| Relation | Magisteruppsats i biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap vid institutionen Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, 1654-0247 ; 2008:84 |
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