Reading in the Culture of Reading : A study on the view of reading and the librarians’ reading promotion in the Literature Survey 2012

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the view on reading and reading promotion in the Culture of Reading (SOU 2012:65), based on three different approaches to reading and reading promotion; the pragmatic, the emancipatory and the traditionalistic. The thesis is based on the following questions; which view on reading can be seen in the Culture of Reading and which view on librarians’ reading promotion can be seen in the Culture of Reading. To answer these questions, I am going to apply the aforementioned approaches on the Culture of Reading. The Culture of Reading is an official report from the Swedish government and parts of it will be subject to a qualitative content analysis. The results from the analysis shows that all of the approaches, to some extent, can be seen in the report. Reading is presented as something of great importance to the nation and the individual. The approach most prevalently seen regarding librarians’ reading promotion is the emancipatory. Librarians are also given a pedagogic role. The need for cooperation regarding reading promotion is also underlined in the report. The thesis also shows that libraries and the librarians can be very influential when it comes to creating readers and laying the foundation for a future interest in reading and literature.Program: Bibliotekari