Swedish university libraries traditionally collect recreational readingmaterial only to support the teaching and research interests of theirinstitutions. However many university libraries hold a substantial yetunspecified collection of popular fiction. This thesis investigates theextent of these collections and examines academic librarians' viewsabout students' recreational reading in the academic context and theirattitudes towards the role of fiction and of readers' advisory inacademic libraries. The theoretical framework includes literature andresearch about the benefits of reading for pleasure, collections' rolesand readers' advisory strategies. The empirical material was gatheredthrough quantitative surveys sent to academic librarians in Sweden.The results show that academic librarians are positive about thebenefits of recreational reading for university students.

The aim of this study is to examine the roles of the children?s librarian in a reading aloud context. To reach understanding in this subject, we have conducted interviews with four Swedish librarians working in public libraries whom are involved with reading aloud practices. Previous research shows that the reasons for reading aloud in libraries are diverse and plentiful. Such reasons can be to spread cultural experiences, help children develop their language skills and promote the library to the public.

Preschool belongs to Lpo-94. School readiness can interprets in different kind of aspects, then you can not found any goals to reach in Lpo- 94 for the pre-school, which preschool teachers can relay to. There are comprehensive goals for the nine-year school in Lpo- 94, about which knowledge the student should have for the fifth grade. Purpose of the studie is to examine preschool teachers understanding of the phenomenon school readiness. Qualitative interviews by preschool teachers in south and middle of Sweden has been carried out and a hermeneutic analyse has been used for a deeper understanding of pre-school teachers interprets of school readiness.

The aim of the study was to examine the reading ability of adultswith intellectual and/or communicative disabilities. The group adults withintellectual and/or communicative disabilities consisted of 66 individuals.One control group consisting of 36 children aged 7 to 12 years and onereference group consisting of 14 adults were used. Participants were given anumber of language and reading related tests. Adults with intellectual and/orcommunicative disabilities had significantly lower results than the adultreference group regarding all tests and significantly lower results than thechild control group regarding phonological processing. There was nodifference between adults with intellectual and/or communicative disabilitiesand the child comparison group regarding word decoding and readingcomprehension.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the importance of a school library for youths, age 14-16, from their perspective. We intend to study how they use and experience the school library both for educational- and leisure related purposes. We also intend to inquire their possibility to influence their school library. The literature that has been used consists of material from research concerning youth culture and school library.

The aim of this study is to look at how librarians express theirpart in reading groups organized by public libraries. Thestudy is based on interviews with seven public librarians insouth regions of Sweden. The main theory used to analyse isfound in the article Bibliotekaren som litteraturformidler(1994) written by the Norwegian librarian Jofrid KarnerSmidt, where she talks about five different roles that alibrarian can have in this context and how they appear. Threeof these roles were used in this study: the pedagogue, theliterature expert and the marketer.The interviewed librarians mostly had a similar view on howthey look at their role in the reading group. They saw theirpurpose as to provide all kinds of people with a possibility tojoin in discussions about mutual interests and share variousopinions about books.

The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.

The basic idea behind an extra year in school was to offer students who have not read nine years in Swedish primary school an opportunity to prepare themselves to pass a high school. This first group that went an extra year in school consisted of eleven students who completed their studies and went on to high school. During the time the group expanded, the school received students from various schools in the same municipality. During the follow-up of these groups could be noted that there were many students who registered, but only few students completed their studies and went on to high school. The purpose of this study was to explore why leadership in the classroom is important for students.

We studied the initial process of reading, with a focus on typography, whether it ispossible to increase childrens lust to read in the age six to seven years old, byadjusting the typography and graphic design. We conduct this study through qualitative and quantitative studies, mainlyinterviews with a main focus on children in this particular age were used. In additionto the interviews a questioniare were sent out to a selection of students. The studyalso contained an interview with a pedagogue as well as studies of the current andexisting textbooks and teaching aids that is used on the school we are looking into.During the study we consulted educated pedagogues to get an understanding of thechildren and their learning and to be able to approach them in a suitable way.The theories we have been using were mainly from a typographic point of view.Other areas we explored were theories about reading processes. This study showedthat every child needs a method that is suitable for them and that the materialprovided today is typographically inconsistent. The childrens and teachers needs andwishes in typography did not correspond with the current teaching aids design. From this study the followning points were made about how to design a textbook forchildren in the first grade:? The typeface should be a sans serif.? The point size should be bigger than 12 points.? Text should be aligned to the left.? Sentences should be short without becoming abstract.? To maintain focus on the text the layout should be simple and unbarked.? The format should be designed after the pourpose of the publication, forexample when it is a complement to the textbook, the format should be of suchcharacter that it is easy for the children to bring home.? There should be a typographical consistency through all of the materialsprovided to the children..

The purpose of this study is to present a comparative analysis of seven literature anthologies for the Upper Secondary School, from 1968-2004, to investigate how much space Esaias Tegnér is getting and how many and which of his works that is presented in these anthologies.The study is set against the hypothesis that Tegnér is getting a reduced space in the anthologies because of his connection to Romantic nationalism, which after World War II has been associated to the themes and ideology of the National Socialism. In view of this I have asked myself if Tegnér is getting a reduced space in the literature anthologies for the Upper Secondary School. My study shows that this is the case.One can also see clear trends in a subjective approach towards the author. In the anthologies where Tegnér have had a strong prominent role, he is retaining his position even in later editions. Over the entire period of 1968-2004 he is getting a less prominent role, although he is generally presented as the greatest poet of his time.I have also examined the discussion of Tegnér during that period to see if you can find any connection between the discussion about Tegnér and the change his work gets in the literature anthologies.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether there is a connection between distance to the schoollibrary and the extent to which teachers are using it as an integral part of their teaching. The study aims to answerif the physical distance to the school library is affecting teachers' ways of working with the library, if it affects thecollaboration between teachers and librarians and finally if teachers that are using a school library outside theschool premises are doing so less as an integral part of their teaching compared to teachers that have access to aschool library within the schools premises.The study is based on qualitative interviews with six teachers in the intermediate stage of the nine-yearcompulsory school, of which three have access to a school library within the school premises and three haveaccess to a school library outside the school premises. The two groups of teachers are compared in order to findout if there is a connection between distance to the school library and the usage of it. Loertscher's school librarymedia program and teacher taxonomy have been used as a theoretical framework.The study shows that the teachers who use a school library within the school premises have a bettercollaboration with the librarians than the ones who use a school library outside the school premises. The studyalso show that theese libraries are an integral part of the teaching to a higher degree.

Projects to equip every student and teacher with a laptop, with the intention to improve academic results, have rapidly spread through the country. New technology, new contents and new ways of learning have changed the learning envi-ronment. The school library, being a part of this environ-ment, faces the same changes and challenges.The purpose of this thesis is to study how the school library is being affected when a One-to-One project is carried out in a learning environment. The research questions concern how the school library is viewed within the organization and also how the change affects both the school library and the school librarian.The empirical material of the thesis includes five qualitative interviews carried out on location, at a single selected school. The interviews are followed by a study of relevant documents, all produced within the organization.To understand the organization in which the school library operates, as well as the school library itself, I chose to divide the theoretical approach in two: Christensen?s et al.

The purpose of this study is to search for and compare how teachers in a multicultural municipal school and in a multicultural independent school design their teaching to benefit all the students in the classroom, regardless of background.I wanted to get information about how teachers work from an intercultural perspective. To get information I used qualitative methods, which includes interviews and observations. I interviewed four teachers working in a primary school. Two from a independent school and two from a municipal school.The result revealed that both the independent school and municipal school are working from an intercultural perspective where they try to find different methods to reach every student in the class. Their biggest similarity is that the teachers put a lot of effort on language development since the Swedish language is key to the Swedish society.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the reading promotion project called ?A book?s all sides?, together with the activities of the book-event, can stimulate young people?s reading. The research questions are: How do the project leaders plan and organize activities for the book-event? How do the young people respond to the activities at the book-event? Do the young people get interested in the book which is presented at the book-event? Which connections between Vygotskij?s theory and the activities can be found in the book-event? The theoretical approach is based on Lev Vygotskij?s socio-cultural theory. To answer my research questions I have implemented four qualitative interviews and two interviews with the adult activity leaders and observed a book-event in the classroom.