”Självklart att man skall läsa högt för barn!” En studie av läs- och högläsningsvanor hos småbarnsföräldrar som inte använder bibliotek.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate reading habits among parents of preschool children who do not use the public library. Another aim has been to investigate why these parents don’t use the library and if there is anything the library can do to change this. Little research had earlier been done on this subject. The theoretical framework consists of two different models. One is Andersson´s and Skot-Hansen´s model of the four different roles of the public library. The other is Jochumsen´s and Hvenegaard Rasmussen´s model of social space and lifestyles. To answer my questions I have carried out interviews with five parents. In order to find interviewees I first distributed a questionnaire via different preschools. The results show that some of the parents read relatively often and that they all read aloud to their children on a daily basis. They have all been library attenders at some point in life. The reason for not using the library presently varies. Some parents prefer to buy books so that they do not need to think about returning them. Some of them are also discouraged by their image of the library as a place where you must be quiet. These parents also tend to forget that the library exists or believe that it mainly targets other demographic groups. The library can address some of these problems and some not, for instance by developing marketing strategies, implement technical applications that send reminders in advance when books are due back and a more inviting environment.