The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine how two libraries, Sundbyberg bibliotek and Rinkeby bibliotek,
work with activities that promote and stimulate reading among children and youths. The main purpose behind
this study is to examine what kind of activities the libraries offer, how they are received by the children and
youths participating in them and lastly how the libraries deal with children and youths who are disinterested in
reading.
The theoretical base for this study is discourse analysis, which is used to distinguish a structure in the interviews
with the librarians from the two libraries. Furthermore, research results in the field of activities that promote
reading among children and youths form a backdrop for the study as well as a framework onto which the
empirical results are hung.
The methods used in this study are qualitative interviews and text analysis. One librarian from Sundbyberg
bibliotek has been interviewed and two librarians from Rinkeby bibliotek. The text analysis was based on policy
documents, the websites of the respective libraries and lastly the social media where the libraries are active.
The main results show that the libraries have similar attitudes regarding the importance of reading for children
and youths. Furthermore, the librarians all showed a wide variety of activities that are intended to stimulate
reading for children and youths. These activities can be divided into either direct or indirect reading stimulating
activities. The direct activities deal with reading in a literal sense and books are a clear topic. The indirect activities,
however, are a way to mediate between the child and the youth, and reading. Instead of having books as a
topic, these activities are overtly about something else, such as films or playtime for toddlers. Reading is implied
but never mentioned directly. This division is in place because children and youths are less inclined to participate
in activities that are overtly about reading since there are a large number of children and youths who do not appreciate
reading.
This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.