For gain or pleasure? : A qualitative interview study about leisure-time teachers’ perception on reading and cooperation with libraries

The study aims to examine how leisure-time centers implement reading in their activities and how leisure-time teachers perceive reading in the leisure-time center. The study also explores how leisure-time centers cooperate with libraries. The method used was qualitative interviews with six leisure-time teachers from six leisure-time centers. The leisure-time teachers were all recruited to the study because of their implementation of reading in the leisure-time center. The interviews were analyzed with a theoretical framework compiled by Limberg (2003) about ways that adults perceive reading in schools and libraries. The study shows that the leisure-time teachers have different attitudes towards reading, some aligning themselves more with school reading and others more with leisure reading. This points toward the conclusion that the leisure-time center does not provide equal opportunities for all children in Sweden to read in the same way in the leisure-time center. The study additionally shows that the leisure-time teachers and librarians often only have a superficial cooperation consisting of the librarian providing books for the leisure-time center but rarely participating in reading activities. Results point towards that leisure-time teachers’ perception of reading impacts if and how the leisure-time center wishes to cooperate with the library. Leisure-time teachers with a perception of reading that coincides with the school seem to be less interested in using the librarian in activities while teachers with a more leisure oriented view have more of an interest of including the librarian