Ways to fiction : A study of the reading support activities at five upper secondary school libraries, their motives and underlying idea of young people.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine the reading support activities performed by the school libraries of five Swedish upper secondary schools. It focuses upon fiction reading. Two main research questions are asked: the first one in order to find out what kind of ideas of fiction, fiction reading and young people that are held by the librarians of the five libraries, the second one in order to find out what the motives behind the reading support activities are. One additional research question is asked to examine how the librarians estimate the results of the reading support activities, and furthermore how the students seem to respond to them. The research method used is longer, qualitative interviews with altogether five school librarians and one school library assistant. The interviews have later been analyzed, mainly out of two theoretical perspectives: the theories of fiction reading with young students by Louise Rosenblatt, and the theory of young people’s cultural behaviour in late modern society by Thomas Ziehe. The result of the analysis shows that the librarians’ view of young people is foremost flexible, and that they adjust their approach to individual students as well as to their own method of working. The motives behind the reading support activities seem to be both personal and related to educational goals of the school organisation. The librarians reading support activities are often well received by the students and also have positive implications for their schooling