Promoting reading 1
among other things to stimulate interest in readi
ng in order to improve students’ reading ability (Bergman & Persson 2013a). According to the National Library of Sweden’s statistics, 3,200 author visits occurred at Sweden’s public libraries in 2014. The Masters thesis Författarevenemang på svenska folkbibliotek (Evenings with authors at Swedish public libraries) (Ahlberg 1999), which was based on questionnaires sent to 275 libraries, showed that adults are the most common target group for author visits and these visits are usually by authors of fiction. An example of author visits targeting a younger audience is the annual visit in Rinkeby of the Nobel Prize winner for literature, an activity that has been going on since 1988. In their research project Författaren i klassrummet (The author in the classroom), Lotta Bergman and Magnus Persson (2013b) took on the previously relatively unexplored area of author visits. They conclude that author visits are generally one-off events: the author comes to a lesson, reads from and talks about his/her books, answers questions and that is the end of it. Some visits are more ambitious and include extensive preparations as well as subsequent arrangements. In this project, Bergman and Persson followed more protracted and ambitious arrangements around author visits and investigated what perceptions of the function of literature, its value and use were negotiated in the encounter between the author, the teacher and the students at authors visits in schools. They observed that the students’ work with a novel in the context of an author visit generated various types of conversations about for example text interpretation, connections to one’s own experiences, political and aesthetic questions, etc., – in short, elements that justify deeming such author visits as a form of social reading. They also discuss the transformation of reading into a performance in the context of an author visit, where the author’s reading aloud, with the aid of various dramaturgical devices, becomes a staged performance. References Ahlberg, Malin (1999). Författarevenemang på svenska folkbibliotek. Borås: Borås University, Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Masters thesis. Allan, J., Ellis, S. & Pearson, C. (2005). Literature circles, gender and reading for enjoyment: Report for the Scottish Executive Education Department. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive. Balling, Gitte (2007). Virtuelle læseklubber – på vej mod bibliotek 2.0. Royal School of Library and Information Science Denmark Bergman, Lotta & Persson, Magnus (2013a). Författaren i klassrummet. En pilotstudie. Included in: Skjelbred, Dagrun & Veum, Anslaug (ed.) Literacy i læringskontekster. Oslo: Cappelen Damm. Bergman, Lotta & Persson, Magnus (2013b). Läsningens scener. Included in: Björkman, Jenny & Fjæstad, Björn (ed.) Läsning. RJ:s årsbok 2013/2014. Gothenburg: Makadam. Bergkvist, Jorunn (2008). “En virtuell bokcirkel blir mer en del utav vardagen…”: En kvalitativ studie av virtuella bokcirklar. Borås: Borås University, Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Masters thesis. Chambers, Aidan (1993). Tell me:children, reading & talk. Stroud : Thimble Press. Elkin, Judith; Train, Briony & Denham, Debbie (2003). Reading and reader development: the pleasure of reading. London: Facet. Eriksson Barajas, Katarina (2012). Boksamtalets dilemman och möjligheter. 1. uppl. Stockholm: Liber. Fish, Stanley Eugene (1980). Is there a text in this class?: the authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. 77