Bibliotherapy - as a component of medical care : case studies of two hospital libraries

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of bibliotherapy in Swedish hospital libraries. The aim is to try to identify and evaluate the difficulties with using bibliotherapy in a hospital library. And also see what opportunities bibliotherapy can offer. Choice of method is case study with qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians and two family therapists who use bibliotherapy in treatment. What are their thoughts and beliefs about bibliotherapy? My study also aims to highlight the differences between bibliotherapy as described in the literature and the way it is described in practice. Literature studies show that the term bibliotherapy is difficult to define. It can be divided in two groups, interactive bibliotherapy and reading bibliotherapy. This case study indicates that the knowledge of bibliotherapy in hospitals is limited and that the work is not done consciously and strategically. The interviews show that the librarians working with books as health promotion and that they have a strong conviction that literature has a positive influence on health