Biblioteket och läshundar : Läshundar som en metod för bibliotekets arbete inom lässtimulans

Sammanfattning: There is a growing interest among libraries for using assistance of dogs in reading training for children. Many Swedish school libraries and public libraries are already today using this kind of pedagogy. From study results we can see that humans feel relaxed and calm together with kind animals. This affects humans physically and psychologically in different ways for example; lowering the blood pressure and set off calming hormones oxytocin. As we all know that reading out loud can be a very stressful situation so taking assistance of a reading dog or an assisting dog can be very helpful. Designed as a qualitative interview study, by interviewing project leaders, school and children’s librarians working with this kind of reading activity, this study examines the questions: how is reading stimulation using reading dogs depicted in practice? How does the projects and how function and how does the Project’s librarians experience this kind of pedagogy? Finally how do reading dogs affect reading activities in the school libraries and public libraries looking through the sociocultural view and the literacy concept? The interviews made in this study suggest that research in the field is needed and financial help is crucial for them to survive so the ongoing or finished projects with assistance or reading dogs can continue in the future. Though the positive results from trying the method gave a wanting for a continuation but sometimes there is no clear plan how to proceed. The guidance from research and financial help could make a huge difference for the librarians working with this pedagogy.