Högskoleförberedelse i gymnasiebibliotek : Utbildningsbibliotekens roll för ungas övergång från gymnasie- till högskolestudier

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines how school libraries and academic libraries work with certain aspects of academic literacy in order to prepare pupils for higher education. The starting point of the thesis is the proposal for a new national strategy for Swedish libraries, published in March 2019, where educational libraries are presented as a coherent chain. The aim with the thesis is to find out whether there is a gap between upper secondary school libraries and academic libraries, in how they work with academic preparation. The purpose is to map the work already executed in the area and how the libraries’ mission has been stated. Data is collected in two web surveys: one sent out to staff at upper secondary school libraries and one to staff at academic libraries. The respondents answered questions about their current work and how the mission is perceived. The scientific method used is influenced by on-going evaluation. To define preparation areas, theory about academic literacy is applied.   To define the mission of educational libraries related laws, documents and other relevant information has been analysed. Responses from  the surveys help answering questions about executed work, perception of mission and experiences of a possible knowledge gap.   In documents related to statements of the libraries’ mission it is clear that school libraries play a part in helping schools reach common goals such as academic preparation. Academic libraries have less of pedagogical missions stated for them but out of tradition both libraries already work pedagogically with academic literacy. A gap could be surmised when staff at the school libraries say they work with a specific area of literacy and staff at academic libraries perceive new students to have insufficient knowledge in the same area. The thesis concludes with suggestions to improve the libraries’ work with college preparation. On a national and municipal level there is a need for a more clearly defined mission to assure equivalence for all pupils. Schools are suggested to develop business plans on their own to adapt the national and municipal mission statements to local conditions. Academic libraries are suggested to start cooperating with upper secondary schools. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.