Förskolan i biblioteksplanen: ett sätt att legitimera folkbibliotekets verksamhet?
(2019) ABMM54 20191Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
- Abstract
- In the light of reports of decreasing litteracy among Sweden’s youth, several public studies indicate the importance of promoting reading at an early age. In this context, library activities directed at preschools has been pointed out as especially important.
Although there is presently no requirement for preschools to have access to a school library, which is the case for elementary schools, there seems to be broad consensus as to the importance of library activities directed at preschools. Such measures can therefore be seen as a way for public libraries to increase their relevance in the local community and thereby strengthen their legitimacy. Consequently the aim of this thesis is to examine if and how library activities directed at... (More) - In the light of reports of decreasing litteracy among Sweden’s youth, several public studies indicate the importance of promoting reading at an early age. In this context, library activities directed at preschools has been pointed out as especially important.
Although there is presently no requirement for preschools to have access to a school library, which is the case for elementary schools, there seems to be broad consensus as to the importance of library activities directed at preschools. Such measures can therefore be seen as a way for public libraries to increase their relevance in the local community and thereby strengthen their legitimacy. Consequently the aim of this thesis is to examine if and how library activities directed at preschools, as described in local library plans, can be a way to legitimize the public library in the local community.
The methods used are quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The material consists of local library plans from four swedish regions. I am using new institutional theory to clarify the interface of descriptions of library activities directed at preschools on the one hand, and rules, norms and expectations linked with public libraries on the other, to examine if and how these descriptions can be seen as a way to legitimize library actitvities directed at pre schools. I am also analyzing the library plans using a model of the role and function of the public library called The four-space model. By using this model I seek to clarify which of the public libraries’ roles and functions have been pointed out relative to descriptions of activities directed at preschools.
A total of 108 local library plans have been examined, and the result shows that 74 percent of the total 108 library plans, mention preschools explicitly. This could be seen as to indicate that pre school activities are a prioritized part of the work of many public libraries. Although the level of detail to which these activities are described in the plans vary a lot. The majority of the library plans analyzed describe some sort of reading promotional activity, focusing mainly on language development. In relation to the four-space model, connections can especially be made to the inspiration space and the learning space. Few of the library plans describe activities which can be connected to the performative space and the meeting space. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8980920
- author
- Öhman, Linnéa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- The Preschool in the Library Plan : A Way to Legitimize the Public Library?
- course
- ABMM54 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- ALM, Library- and Information Science, Public Libraries: Preschool: Legitimacy, Institutional theory, The four-space model. ABM, biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, folkbibliotek, förskola, legitimitet, nyinstitutionell teori, folkbiblioteksmodell.
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8980920
- date added to LUP
- 2019-07-16 13:30:41
- date last changed
- 2019-07-16 13:30:41
@misc{8980920,
abstract = {{In the light of reports of decreasing litteracy among Sweden’s youth, several public studies indicate the importance of promoting reading at an early age. In this context, library activities directed at preschools has been pointed out as especially important.
Although there is presently no requirement for preschools to have access to a school library, which is the case for elementary schools, there seems to be broad consensus as to the importance of library activities directed at preschools. Such measures can therefore be seen as a way for public libraries to increase their relevance in the local community and thereby strengthen their legitimacy. Consequently the aim of this thesis is to examine if and how library activities directed at preschools, as described in local library plans, can be a way to legitimize the public library in the local community.
The methods used are quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The material consists of local library plans from four swedish regions. I am using new institutional theory to clarify the interface of descriptions of library activities directed at preschools on the one hand, and rules, norms and expectations linked with public libraries on the other, to examine if and how these descriptions can be seen as a way to legitimize library actitvities directed at pre schools. I am also analyzing the library plans using a model of the role and function of the public library called The four-space model. By using this model I seek to clarify which of the public libraries’ roles and functions have been pointed out relative to descriptions of activities directed at preschools.
A total of 108 local library plans have been examined, and the result shows that 74 percent of the total 108 library plans, mention preschools explicitly. This could be seen as to indicate that pre school activities are a prioritized part of the work of many public libraries. Although the level of detail to which these activities are described in the plans vary a lot. The majority of the library plans analyzed describe some sort of reading promotional activity, focusing mainly on language development. In relation to the four-space model, connections can especially be made to the inspiration space and the learning space. Few of the library plans describe activities which can be connected to the performative space and the meeting space.}},
author = {{Öhman, Linnéa}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Förskolan i biblioteksplanen: ett sätt att legitimera folkbibliotekets verksamhet?}},
year = {{2019}},
}