Promoting reading 1
• Promote social reading. There is a correlation
between reading motivation and opportunities to socially interact around the text that has been read. Social interaction includes talking to others about books, reading with others, borrowing and sharing books with others, talking about books and sharing written texts about the books with others. In particular, social reading ought to be promoted among boys and men, especially given the hypothesis that reading is regarded as much more of a private pursuit among men than among women. When literature gains a strongly symbolic and social function, more opportunities arise among readers to influence others. • Use role models. Everyone, and men in particular, should be encouraged to act as reading role models for their children. Promote activities that involve older children reading to younger children. This kind of mentorship has dual benefits: younger children get attention from older children, and the older children gain in self-confidence through acting as role models. Work to increase awareness of the importance of acting as a role model. • Emphasise freedom of choice. Reading motivation is associated with being able to choose what to read. It should be noted that freedom of choice concerning what to read does not necessarily preclude specific objectives in the form of how much to read. • Work on the basis of the needs of the identified (reading) interests of different target groups. As librarians and teachers, do not let your own reading preferences be your guide. Find out what your target audience’s preferences are instead and work on the basis of these. Let your ambition to broaden children’s reading interests come second. • Invest in summer reading programmes with clear objectives, in cooperation with schools and libraries. Stress the educational advantages to parents. Combine social reading in the form of reading club activities and the like with a certain amount of reading as a goal. Emphasise the joint responsibility of the library and the school. Get assistance from the school in identifying groups of children and their families in order to offer practical support to participate and to monitor the progress that students have made in connection with the programme. • Set clear and achievable goals and evaluate them. References Ahlberg, Malin (1999). Författarevenemang på svenska folkbibliotek. Borås: Borås University, Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Masters thesis. Ahlén, Birgitta & Norberg, Inger (ed.) (2005). Läslust och läslist: idéer för högstadiet och gymnasiet Lund: Bibliotekstjänst. Ahlström, Rebecca & Ekstrandh, Angelica (2005). Bokprat för barn: ur ett förmedlarperspektiv. Borås: Borås University, Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Masters thesis. Aleman, Lotta & Ögland, Malin (2013). Att läsa är också en sport. Rapport och utvärdering. Regionbibliotek Stockholm. Allan, J., Ellis, S. & Pearson, C. (2005). Literature circles, gender and reading for enjoyment: Report for the Scottish Executive Education Department. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive. Almerud, Peter (2004). Bibliotek i skymundan: en rapport om arbetsplatsbibliotek. Stockholm: Swedish Arts Council. Andersson, Annica & Hjertström, Annika (2006). “Det kanske är lite meningen att man ska vidga 117