Love of reading and work enjoyment : about reading promotion projects at Uddevalla city library

The aim of this thesis was to understand and illuminate how readingpromotion projects can be carried out, what sort of activities they mightcontain and what sort of lasting impressions they might make. We choseto examine reading promotion projects because we consider thepromotion of reading and literacy a vital and important part of thelibraries work. The study took place at the city library of Uddevalla andthe projects included in the study were all directed towards children andyouth.The theory used in the thesis was Aidan Chambers’s model of theReading Circle which consists of the four themes of selection,‘reading’, response and the enabling adult. Methods used were semistructuredinterview, document studies and observation.The results show that reading promotion projects benefit from cooperationbetween the adults involved and that education of the adultsin order to indirectly target the children is an effective way of spreadingthe love of reading. Involving children and youth in the work anddecision making process proved to be prosperous.The conclusions are that reading promotion projects give the librarieseconomic and creative resources to try out new ways of working andcooperating. With these tools and the aim to spread the love of readingthe librarians have an increased possibility to reach out and providesupport and inspiration to all becoming readers.Program: Bibliotekari