Barnbiblioteksarbete ur ett genusperspektiv
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. They are therefore not of big help for librarians in finding out about gender aspects in childrens books. This, together with the fact that the guiding principles for public libraries dont specify how librarians are to evaluate childrens books, means that its up to each librarian to what extent they pay attention to gender aspects and in what way. The interviews showed that the librarians vary in this respect. The interviews also showed that the view the individual librarian has of the way gender is developed, if mainly by heredity or environment, influence whether they see different reading habits of girls and boys as natural or as limiting. This means they are to a varying extent motivated to try and change sex-linked reading habits. The librarians have, however, in common that they see their possibilities to influence childrens reading habits as limited.