Reading representatives in healthcare. : A qualitative study of the organization of reading representatives and library access for adults with intellectual disabilities.

The aim of this master thesis is to study how reading representatives are organized within Swedish healthcare and how they work to make reading and the library accessible to adults with intellectual disabilities. The theoretical framework draws on Andersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s model of the public library and Buckland’s identification of barriers to information access. Furthermore, Axelsson’s and Bihari Axelsson’s taxonomy of collaboration modes was used. In total eight semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with reading representatives and coordinators from two Swedish municipalities. The results reveal that the reading representatives are dedicated and make efforts to collaborate with the library, while the management of the organization itself seems to be weak. The analysis shows that the reading representatives work remove many barriers to library usage. However, some barriers require management decisions to be removed. To reach stability and continuation in the organization of the reading representatives, an implementation of work processes – that can evaluate changes in library accessibility for the target group – is suggested