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Läsfrämjande för vuxna - en kvalitativ studie:av folkbibliotekariers uppfattning om arbetet med läsfrämjande för vuxna

Persson, Sophie LU and House, Hillevi LU (2019) ABMM54 20191
Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
Abstract
Reading promotion has a key role in the Swedish public library context. The Swedish Library Act includes reading promotion in paragraph 7. Even though the Act specifies that children and young adults should be given extra attention in the scope of reading promotion the Acts main aim is to serve the population as a whole. Reading promotion constitutes a significant part of the public libraries mission and therefore we find it significant to further explore what reading promotion in the context of the public library means. The aim of this thesis is to examine how librarians within public libraries work with reading promotion for adults and how they justify reading promotion for adults. Research regarding reading promotion often focus on... (More)
Reading promotion has a key role in the Swedish public library context. The Swedish Library Act includes reading promotion in paragraph 7. Even though the Act specifies that children and young adults should be given extra attention in the scope of reading promotion the Acts main aim is to serve the population as a whole. Reading promotion constitutes a significant part of the public libraries mission and therefore we find it significant to further explore what reading promotion in the context of the public library means. The aim of this thesis is to examine how librarians within public libraries work with reading promotion for adults and how they justify reading promotion for adults. Research regarding reading promotion often focus on children and young adults and therefore we find it relevant to research reading promotion in the context of public libraries and how reading promotion activities can relate to adults.

We have conducted seven interviews with librarians at six public libraries situated in region Skåne. Through the interviews we gained knowledge about how the librarians experience their work. Furthermore, we use new institutionalism and theories about the librarian profession to examine different aspects of reading promotion. The results show that reading promotion is viewed as an important and a fundamental part of the public libraries activities and function. The results also show that the librarians view reading and literature as a phenomenon and activity that is an important part of life but also that reading and literature can be used as a means to attain other values such as democracy, a sense of community and to develop as an individual. Even though the librarians express that they experience reading promotion as holding a strong position as an activity at public libraries they experience reading promotion as a part of the libraries’ activities separated from activities that focus more on information services. The librarians express that reading promotion is important and should have a key role at public libraries. They also justify reading promotion by stressing the importance of reading and literature and literature as a crucial part of the library. The results also show that the librarians view reading promotion as an essential part of the library as an institution and as an essential part of librarianship. The fact that the librarians view reading promotion as a crucial part of the libraries activities and services also can be viewed in relation to how the librarians perceive and experience policy documents such as the library Act and other local policy documents. We found that the librarians do not experience these types of documents as being an active part of everyday practice instead these documents serve as a way of legitimizing reading promotion as a part of the public libraries’ activities. (Less)
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@misc{8980515,
  abstract     = {{Reading promotion has a key role in the Swedish public library context. The Swedish Library Act includes reading promotion in paragraph 7. Even though the Act specifies that children and young adults should be given extra attention in the scope of reading promotion the Acts main aim is to serve the population as a whole. Reading promotion constitutes a significant part of the public libraries mission and therefore we find it significant to further explore what reading promotion in the context of the public library means. The aim of this thesis is to examine how librarians within public libraries work with reading promotion for adults and how they justify reading promotion for adults. Research regarding reading promotion often focus on children and young adults and therefore we find it relevant to research reading promotion in the context of public libraries and how reading promotion activities can relate to adults. 

We have conducted seven interviews with librarians at six public libraries situated in region Skåne. Through the interviews we gained knowledge about how the librarians experience their work. Furthermore, we use new institutionalism and theories about the librarian profession to examine different aspects of reading promotion. The results show that reading promotion is viewed as an important and a fundamental part of the public libraries activities and function. The results also show that the librarians view reading and literature as a phenomenon and activity that is an important part of life but also that reading and literature can be used as a means to attain other values such as democracy, a sense of community and to develop as an individual. Even though the librarians express that they experience reading promotion as holding a strong position as an activity at public libraries they experience reading promotion as a part of the libraries’ activities separated from activities that focus more on information services. The librarians express that reading promotion is important and should have a key role at public libraries. They also justify reading promotion by stressing the importance of reading and literature and literature as a crucial part of the library. The results also show that the librarians view reading promotion as an essential part of the library as an institution and as an essential part of librarianship. The fact that the librarians view reading promotion as a crucial part of the libraries activities and services also can be viewed in relation to how the librarians perceive and experience policy documents such as the library Act and other local policy documents. We found that the librarians do not experience these types of documents as being an active part of everyday practice instead these documents serve as a way of legitimizing reading promotion as a part of the public libraries’ activities.}},
  author       = {{Persson, Sophie and House, Hillevi}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Läsfrämjande för vuxna - en kvalitativ studie:av folkbibliotekariers uppfattning om arbetet med läsfrämjande för vuxna}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}