Promoting reading 1
blished in Berlin; an example that has since been
followed in several places in Germany and in the rest of Europe. The literature centre’s activities include lectures, exhibitions, continuing education seminars, author visits and reading groups. The design of new library spaces can be more or less grounded in research. In Rum för barn (Room for children – the Children’s library) at Kulturhuset (the House of Culture) in Stockholm, for example, both the design of the space and the library’s activities are grounded in educational theory. When Rum för barn was built in 2005, it was with the ambition of developing a library based on the child’s perspective throughout. In Rum för barn, the physical design of the space was given more scope than is usual in more traditional libraries. The traditional classification system was abandoned and the books are instead arranged in such a way that the children themselves can find them. There are many reasons for libraries to work with outreach activities, due to something as concrete as physical barriers for borrowers to get to the library. Outreach activities might also be about overcoming cultural barriers. Librarians who have participated in projects involving sport and reading for example have indicated that they have developed better contact with young people they have met on the young people’s own turf, than in the library. Among the outreach activities of public libraries, there is a tradition of establishing physical book stocks at places other than inside the library building and its branches; a type of outreach activity that has undergone a certain amount of renewal in recent times. Reaching out by establishing new bookstocks can mean everything from more obvious variants such as libraries in waiting rooms, to the more experimental, such as libraries at indoor public baths. As part of an effort to move parts of the bookstock to places other than the physical library locale, communal laundry room libraries have been established in many parts of the country, for example. The cloakroom library is another variant, as is the changing room library. Workplace libraries have a long tradition to fall back on, and after a period of decline appear to be enjoying renewed interest. This also applies to mobile libraries of various kinds, such as book buses and book boats. Workplace libraries are one of the more established variants of bookstocks in locations outside the library walls. Workplace libraries for educational purposes have existed since the nineteenth century, established by employers and/or philanthropists. From the end of the nineteenth century, workplace libraries were established by representatives of the labour movement. These libraries were usually not located at the workplace, but in Folkets hus (the community centre) or in someone’s home. In the 1970s, a more comprehensive trial involving workplace libraries began subsequent to the Swedish state enquiry into literature of 1968. For a period of twenty years, workplace libraries grew up rapidly and were seen as an effective way to gain new readers. Since the end of the 1980s, workplace libraries have become marginalised in cultural policy debate and in the activities of public libraries. On the whole, the workplace library as an activity appears to be declining; for example, in 2004 a halving of the number of workplace libraries since 1990 was reported. In 2003, it is estimated that there were around 1200 workplace libraries, of which 500 were under municipal direction, 400 under trade union direction in collaboration with En bok för alla, and 300 were independent workplace libraries. There is much to indicate that this figure has dropped further since then. Many of the workplace libraries started by trade unions were initiated as part of lar113