Promoting reading 1
ger reading promotion projects. A well-functionin
g workplace library can be an effective way of promoting reading because the books are made available, and because the existence of a workplace library at a workplace affects attitudes to books and reading among employees. Since the workplace library has a reading promotion function regardless of who is responsible for it, it has been stressed that renewed efforts should not just cover workplace libraries within the framework of the public library, but also independent workplace libraries, and workplace libraries operated by trade unions. It has also been pointed out that workplace libraries would have the greatest opportunities for development if unions, companies, the Swedish Writers’ Union, ABF (the Workers’ Educational Association) and the Swedish Library Association all work together on this issue, irrespective of who is principally responsible for any individual library. A relatively new form of workplace library is the truckstop library. The first truckstop library in Sweden was opened in 2004 at the roadside café Tönnebro, an initiative of the Swedish Transport Workers Union and the Hotel & Restaurant Workers Union (HRF). The truckstop library acts as common workplace library for these unions and, through its lending of audiobooks and paper books, aims to increase the availability of books – and thereby increase reading among café and restaurant employees and professional drivers. Some truckstop libraries offer download stations where it is possible to borrow audiobooks by downloading them directly to a computer or mobile phone. There are currently twelve truckstop libraries in Sweden. It has been shown that there are professional drivers who borrow up to 8–9 audiobooks per month from these libraries, while they virtually never read books in paper form. A “mobile library” means quite simply a library that does not stay in one place. A history of mobile libraries in Sweden could begin with what were termed travelling libraries, an activity initiated around the turn of last century by the adult education associations, workers’ libraries, and the student unions Verdandi and Heimdal. This activity subsequently came to be replaced by book buses, which even today are a common form of mobile library. Book buses are one of Sweden’s public library outreach activities and have existed for close to seventy years – the first book bus started operation in Borås in 1948. The inspiration for book buses in Sweden came from the USA and the UK, where book buses began to be used in the 1920s from having previously offered mobile libraries by horse and cart. In Sweden in 1975 a state subsidy for book buses was introduced which resulted in an increase in book buses. Book buses, understood as a kind of mobile library branch in specially fitted out vehicles, operate today in roughly one third of Sweden’s 290 municipalities. The fundamental idea behind a book bus is to make a library service available to all, regardless of their place of residence. There is nothing about book buses in Sweden’s Library Act. However, the Act does state that public libraries are to be available to all, and adapted to the needs of users. Book buses and other mobile libraries are a means of effecting such availability. With the aid of book buses, libraries can get to readers instead of the other way around. Studies have shown that during the 1970s and 1980s, book buses were more or less taken for granted while the 1990s saw a decline in them. The decline in the number of book buses in the 1990s was in part a result of cutbacks in library funding generally, which had an impact on the library’s outreach activities. The need for libraries has varied over time and can be seen in relation to the increase in private car ownership 114