Läsa och samtala
Vad betyder folkbibliotekets bokcirkel för användaren?
The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the meaning the reading group of the public library has to a number of users. To fulfill the aim the following three questions have been formulated: 1) What do a number of users expect from the reading group of the public library? 2) Which approach/attitude or approaches/attitudes do a number of users have to reading and to talking about reading? 3) How do a number of users experience the ongoing reading group?The research is founded on qualitative interviews with five users that take part in three different reading groups in public libraries. The theories that are used is the theory of three so called strategies - the pragmatic, the traditionalistic, the emancipatory ? and the theory of flow. The theories have been used to analyze the results and as a way to describe the meaning of the reading group to a number of users. In the review of the literature existing studies of reading groups and relevant literature about reading and reading promotion activities have been examined.Several meanings of the reading group of the public library to a number of users have been discovered and described. The part of the emancipatory strategy that concern personal development is an important meaning. The reading group also turned out to have, outside the theories, a clear social meaning. The meaning can also be described with flow and with the pragmatic strategy. The traditionalistic meaning is limited.