The aim of this masters thesis is to investigate how childrens librarians deal with gender issues in their work when acquiring and mediating books to children, and how reviews in Bibliotekstjänsts Sambindning can be of help in this aspect. The thesis focuses on children between 6 and 12 years of age and their reading of fiction. Four interviews with childrens librarians and an examination of reviews in Sambindningen have been carried out. The reviews were examined both by finding out with what frequency gender issues are dealt with and by studying 20 childrens books from a gender perspective, comparing my judgement with the one they got in the reviews. The examination of Sambindningen showed that the reviews therein only sporadically bring up gender issues.

This thesis analyses how friendship between children is described in four Swedish childrens books, published in 1995-2001 and recommended in Barnbokstipset, which is used in libraries for recommending books. Today there are many childrens books that describe various aspects of childrens everyday lives and these books can have an influence on the children who read them. But I found that there has not been much research about how friendship is described in childrens books, although much has been written about the importance of social relationships with peers for childrens lives and development. I analyze the books one by one with the help of a number of questions and categories that I have constructed beforehand. In the analysis I apply Zick Rubins theory of two different stages in childrens understanding of friendship and William Corsaros theory of interactive space which deals with who is allowed to join in games and friendships and who is not allowed to do so and how this is played out.

The purpose of this master thesis is both to interpret the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child from a public library point of view and to investigate how childrens librarians in the county of Norrbotten view their working situation in their relation to the users. This purpose leads to the main question: How do the childrens librarians and the childrens library consultant describe the present and the future of the childrens library activities in the sparsely populated regions in the county of Norrbotten? The subquestions are: What articles from the Childrens Rights Convention are the most relevant for the public library? In what way can you notice the Childrens Rights in the way the childrens librarians work towards the users? What part of the childrens library activity is the most important according to the childrens librarians and the childrens library consultant? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with childrens librarians and the childrens library consultant of Norrbotten and field observations. The result of the study shows that the articles we found most relevant for the public library are 2, 3, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 23, 28/29, 30, 31 and 42. The Childrens Rights can be noticed in several ways in the childrens library activities.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the notions and use of non fiction literature of children 9-11 years old. Moreover, this study tries to dissect the underlying concepts that exert influence over the target groups notions and use of non fiction literature. The method and empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of eight children within the target group. We use a theory of reading exchange to highlight the different areas of usability of non fiction for children. To emphasize how children use non fiction as representative for actual facts, or as non fiction with fictional content, we use a four-field correlation model.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what intentions handbooks, laws and regulations have had about children and childrens literature, as we think that they can serve as guiding principles for childrens libraries in Sweden. The questions are: what signals have the childrens libraries got from the documents concerning the view of children and childrens literature during the 20th century? What has the social opinion about children been during the 20th century? How have children been seen during the 20th century? The method we used is a qualitative source analysis of mention above documents seen from a hermeneutical point of view. This analysis is woven together with the social opinion on children during the 20th century. Our results show that the aim of childrens literature before 1945 was a pedagogic and moral one.

The aim of the study is to explore the meaning of living with urinary incontinence caused by Spina Bifida, self-esteem, psychological well-beeing and expectations on treatment of urinary incontinence in 10 children and adolescents, 9-20 years old, as well as their parents perspective. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviewes as well as self-reports about self-esteem ("I think I am"; Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1999) and psychological well-beeing (Beck Ungdomsskalor; Beck, Beck & Jolly, 2004). To examine the parents insight in their childrens situation and well-beeing parents proxy-reports was compared to their childrens self-reports. The results showed that psychological well-beeing and self-esteem of the children and adolescents in this study was comparable to normgroups, but that there was big individual differences. The parents proxy-reports are comparable to their childrens self-reports, but vary depending on the domain beeing estimated.

Barns inflytande i förskolan - Children?s influence at the preschool This essay concentrates around teachers work with children´s influence at the preschool and how that affects the days there for the children and the teachers. The purpose of the essay is to present how four educationalists placed at two different preschools work with childrens influence at the preschool and their point of wiev of the matter. With that I also wanted to expose how the educationalists work with childrens rights at the preschool and to that I added how democracy is used at the preschool. The investigation´s starting point was the questions: What does childrens influence at the preschool mean for the educationalists? How do the educationalists think regarding childrens rights? When can the children be included in dessisionmaking at the preschool? When is it not possible for the children to be included in the dessisionmaking? The four educationalists were intervjued seperately to get the most honest answers.

The aim of this master thesis is to obtain a greater understanding of childrens choice of favourite books, insight in their reading experiences and their thoughts about the reading of these books. We also want to investigate if, and if so, how childrens librarians obtain knowledge of the childrens reading preferences and reading experiences and how they use this knowledge in their work to stimulate childrens reading. To reach our aim we have been carrying out quantitative interviews with six children aged nine to ten years and three childrens librarians working in public libraries. As a theoretical starting point we use the reader-oriented theory and Chambers Reading circle, which states that support from adults is the most important factor in the childs reading process. The empirical results are linked to theories and earlier research and are analysed under four different themes.

The aim with this thesis, based on five childrens librarians statements, is to highlight their view of their work, and what they deem to be of importance when working with small children within the library sphere. My main question is as follows: What motive compels childrens librarians in their work with small children, and will Vygotskys theories be recognised in their statements. I have two questions as a base for this main question: How do childrens librarians work with small children, and do they utilise any special methods in their work? How do childrens librarians view their work tasks, and what do they deem to be of importance regarding small children and libraries? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews. As a theory I have decided to concentrate on Vygotskys thoughts on imagination and creativity, the Zone of Proximal Development, and childrens language development.

The aim of this master thesis was to find out about librarians opinions of childrens libraries on the Internet, if it is a resource to reach children. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three librarians who had participated in the construction and development of childrens libraries on the Internet. IT and the Internet play an important role in childrens lives and children are using it to a greater extent. Libraries have begun to integrate IT and Internet into their services and are offering service on the Internet. The public library websites are usually for grown-ups and very few are directed to children.

Barnens bibliotek, a Swedish Childrens Library on the Internet with a nationwide assignment is compared to three Childrens Library in the USA with local assignments. All four Childrens Libraries on the Internet are compared in terms of content, form, purpose and if they stimulate childrens intelligences according to Howard Gardners theory about multiple intelligences. Three different instruments are used to review the websites. The instruments are created on the basis of literature and the website Barnens bibliotek. To complement these instruments, written interviews are performed with librarians responsible for each reviewed website.

The aim of this Masters thesis is, with an exploratory stand, to examine the thoughts regarding gender perspective at childrens library service that are expressed from childrens librarians as well as the staff in administrative management. The purpose of the study is to generate ideas for further research and discussion regarding a gender perspective on the childrens library service. A total of eight interviews have been carried out. Three persons at the administrative level and five childrens librarians were interviewed. We also have examined if a gender perspective is expressed in the control documents, from international level to a local level, which the libraries could use when developing and planning their work.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the factors that contribute to childrens feelings of enjoyment and wellbeing while reading pleasure reading. The research is founded on qualitative interviews with eight children aged between 9 and 12 years. In the review of the literature different theories of reading experiences are examined and the theory of flow is used to analyse and interpret childrens statements of reading experiences. The theory of flow has not been developed to investigate reading but aims to describe and explain when and how people experience happiness and joy. The results of this study reveal that many different factors influence childrens reading.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to accomplish an understanding for childrens librarians purchases of juvenile books. Two main questions are to be answered: - Which considerations do childrens librarians do when buying juvenile books and which goals and motives are behind their purchases? - What do childrens librarians think that their knowledge and competence consists of and how is that knowledge useful when buying juvenile books? To answer the questions qualitative interviews with five childrens librarians have been carried out. The material has been analyzed through a theoretical construction consisting of theories about collection development, book selection and quality judgments. The conception tacit knowledge silent knowledge from Michael Polanyi has also been used for interpretation.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some child welfare case workers say they go about to give children in foster homes the opportunity to be heard. The idea was also to examine how much weight is given to the children?s views and if the respondents believe that the childrens right to be heard has improved over the time they have been working with foster children and if so, how? The study was conducted by using qualitative research method and the analysis of the results was made using Shier?s model of childrens participation. The results have also been tied to previous research in the area. The conclusions of this study was that according to the respondents it?s important that they get to know the children well so that the children can have confidence enough to speak their minds.