The aim of this study is to investigate ordinary readers' evaluation of quality in literature. The main issue is which criteria ordinary grown-up readers use when they are defining their likes and dislikes in literature. The analysis is based upon qualitative interviews with six readers, two men and four women, between 21 and 59 years of age. The study is hermeneutic. Since theoretical works concerning evaluation of literature among ordinary readers are sparse, the philosopher of arts and religion Hugo A.

A reading campaign, Läsrörelsen The Reading Movement took place in Sweden 2000 until 2002. It was started by some adult educationists, and was supported by over 120 organizations. The aim of my study was to examine which messages the campaign wanted to mediate. As the campaign meant that reading was important for democracy, I wanted to study if there was any public debate about reading around 1900 when the democracy process had just started in Sweden. I have also studied if reading is regarded in the same way by the rulers of Sweden as it was by the campaign.

This essay studied how six girls experienced their reading development during their college education in male-dominated profession programs. The issues assumed were how they experience their literature reading and literature education and what happened with their interest in reading. The theoretical frame included researchers Säljö, Rosenblatt, Gun Malmgren, Olin-Scheller, Ulfgaard and Molloy.The study showed that most of the girls felt their reading had worsened but not because of their male classmates but because of school. They had a lot of homework and participated in so many different school projects which would be completed that there was no time to reading for pleasure. The girls did not like the teachers? literate sample and did not like the methods used in learning literature.

Children's library's primary task is to encourage children to read. Promoted readingleads to increased reading skills. A common method for this purpose is booktalk. This studyaims to examine how children?s librarians work with booktalk aimed towards children andhow it can be developed as a working method to support the library's reading promotionactivities.

This study is about the importance of pictures to children's pleasure in reading. The aim of this study was to investigate pupils ' thoughts about the pictures in picture books. I wanted to find out if the pictures in the books are of importance to children's pleasure in reading and why. Also what types of pictures that create the pleasure in reading and why. Through literature, I see why it is important to read books and how teachers can create encouraging reading among children.

The Picture book - text and image in interaction. A study of Tove Jansson's picturebook: The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little MyThis study examines Tove Jansson's picture book The Book About Moomin, Mymbleand Little My, to show relationships between text and image in the narration of thestory. This is done through an analysis based on Ulla Rhedins dissertation The picturebook - towards a theory where the conclusion is that the picture book as book mediumcan be divided in three different picture concepts. The various concepts are; the epicpicture book, the expanding text as well as the genuine picture book. This study hasperformed a text and image analysis showing that the image colors, the differentspreads, landscape scenes and characters' placement, et cetera play a role in placingthe picture book in its concept.Tove Jansson used more than text and image to work out the story of theMoomintroll, Mymble and Little My, there are holes in the picture book that have animportant role, which the analysis will show.

The release of Maja Lundgrens Myggor och tigrar in 2007 caused a large debate that mostly focused on whether the book should be seen as a true reproduction of reality or a work of fiction and if the author had made the right choice in writing about friends, family and famous Swedish persons in her book. About one year later Lars Norén published En dramatikers dagbok in which he also shares details about other people´s lives and, by placing the book in the genre of a diary, claims that it represents reality. The critics were easier on him, and more positive over all in their judgment of En dramatikers dagbok, and many were upset about how different the two authors and their books were received. Tofind out why controversial works are apprehended as controversial I have chosen to analyze Maja Lundgrens Myggor och Tigrar and Lars Noréns En dramatikers dagbok, independent of, as well as compared to, each other. While leaning on reception theory andtheories about different ways of reading as well as the autobiography as a genre I have asked myself the following questions:Which factors have led critics as well as the public opinion to speak about Maja Lundgrens Myggor och tigrar and Lars Noréns En dramatikers dagbok as controversial?What do the two books have in common and what separates them?How does the debate differ regarding the two books and what is the cause for that difference in reception?My essay shows that when reading an autobiography or a diary most people cannot separate the book from the author and the life that the book is a reflection of.

The purpose of my study has been to find out how mother tongue teachers working in preschools where a majority of the children have a mother tongue other than Swedish make use of fictional children?s books during the mother tongue support lessons. In order to determine this, I am asking the following questions:- What is the range of children's books in the children's mother tongue available at the preschool?- In what ways are the native language teachers encouraging literacy development through the usage of children's books?- How do native language teachers view the childrens? linguistic development as well as the enhancement of cultural identity through the usage of the books?These questions have formed the basis of the methodical approach, which is based on a qualitative research method. The data collection consists of three parts; the observation of mother tongue support, interviews with language teachers as well as with the nursery manager and lastly a survey of children's books in languages other than Swedish at the preschool.The essay has as its theoretical basis the socio-cultural view of learning and development.

The aim of this master thesis is to discuss the access to literature and reading by mentally retarded persons, and how this is affected by library and care taking staffs awareness of mentally retarded persons needs of literature and reading. The reason why we decided to choose this essay topic, is that there is a lack of research about mentally retarded persons relationship with libraries, literature and reading in the field of library- and information science. This groups needs must be brought to sight, so that they can take part in the literature just as anyone else, on their own conditions. Our study involves interviews with four librarians, three reading representatives and a co-ordinator at the Easy-to-Read Foundation. We can establish that all of our informants prove to have significant knowledge about mentally retarded persons and their needs of literature and reading.

The topic of this bachelor thesis is the art of book talk. Book talk is when a librarian orally presents a book in front of a group of people, in this thesis, a group of children. The first part of the thesis treats book talk as a method and its development. It will also go through which role book talk plays in the daily work of a children's librarian today, and if they got any education in book talk during their librarian education. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare Lev Vygotskij's pedagogical theories on fantasy and creativity to book talk performed by children's librarians.

Children's library's primary task is to encourage children to read. Promoted readingleads to increased reading skills. A common method for this purpose is booktalk. This studyaims to examine how children?s librarians work with booktalk aimed towards children andhow it can be developed as a working method to support the library's reading promotionactivities.

The main aim of this thesis is to study how and in which way the library personnel works with reading groups and their view of reading groups. I also want to study which role the governing- and policy documents have in the library personnel?s work. The following questions were asked.Which similarities and differences between the different library personals outlooks and acting can be interpreted from the following aspects:? Promoting reading, book selections and the leader's role?? To talk about personal subjects and to create possibilities for personal growth and increased empathy?? To promote language development and reading comprehension?The methods used in the study are a combination of interviews and observations.

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities for children?s librarians to extend their competence in the area of reading promotion. The study is carried out within an ongoing reading promotion project directed towards small children from 0-7 years. The study aims to answer the following questions: How do children?s librarians develop new skills in a reading promotion project? How do children?s librarians view a broadening of the concept of reading and how does their approach affect which skills that are acknowledged?The study is mainly based on qualitative interviews with five children´s librarians who all participate in the project.

This thesis is about a language-stimulating activity, called the Book Teddy, which take placein Markaryd, a small municipality in southern Sweden. The activity is described and someexamples given of the Book Teddy's visits to the homes of parents and their preschool children.Similar activities in Värnamo, Kumla and Borås, which have been inspired by the BookTeddy are also described.Facts about children's psychology, language development and child language illustrate theimportance of stimulating language acquisition in the early years. An important example is"The Bristol Study", a longitudinal study of preschool children.A questionnaire was sent to 93 parents, whose children were bom in 1991. 53 parents or57% answered. The analysis was made out of these 53 questionnaires.

The aim of our study is to gain understanding of how parentsperceive their own, the preschool's, and the library's efforts to stimulate preschoolers' enjoyment and yearning to read, as well as what types of collaborative efforts the parents seek.The study is based upon qualitative interviews with parents, both mothers and fathers, to preschool children (aged 1.5 to 6 years old). The analysis does not offer any generalizations. We have chosen to use a sociocultural perspective as the theoretical starting-point of our study, our thoughts being that we learn together with and by the help of others. We consider this perspective to be closely related to Aidan Chambers's "The Reading Circle", which we have chosen to use as our tool of analysis.It turned out that the parents perceived their own reading stimulating role as crucial, even if they did not consider all they did as reading stimulative. Some things, such as discussing the book while reading, occurred naturally but is also an important part to stimulate reading.