"You can put your brain into them" : An interveiw study about tween boys' reading and the literary dissemination method Lesersørvis

This master’s thesis presents a qualitative interview study with Swedish boys aged 9 to 11 that focuses on their reading preferences and especially in relation to the literary dissemination method Lesersørvis. Semistructured interviews were carried out with the librarian who introduced the Lesersørvis method to Swedish libraries, 2 children’s librarians and 38 boys aged 9 to 11. The interviews with the boys were inspired by and partly modelled after a phenomenological approach to interviewing. The interview answers were analysed thematically. In terms of layout the study starts with an interview with 2 children’s librarians and the answers from this interview serve as the basis for the formulation of further interview questions aimed at the boys. The results show that the 2 children’s librarians find it difficult to reach tween boys and that they believe that greater knowledge of the Lesersørvis method in relation to boys’ reading preferences could aid them in this difficult work. The interviews with the boys show that many read 5 to 15 minutes a day and prefer genres such as humour, nonfiction, action and fantasy. A recurring motivation for the preferences of many of the boys less accustomed to reading is the ability to understand the book at hand. Simultaneously other boys express a desire for challenging literature and a desire to learn. It is also worth noting that many of the boys are interested in video games and in the light of previous research on boys, literacy, digitality and video games, it seems like children’s librarians working with literary dissemination have a lot to gain by tapping into this interest in different ways. Furthermore, it also appears to be very important to approach the Lesersørvis method with a critical awareness of the risks and limitations associated with generalisations based on gender. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.