Vad hände med sagostunden? : En kvalitativ intervjustudie med barnbibliotekarier i Sverige och Tyskland under covid-19-pandemin

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine what happened to library storytime sessions during the COVID-19-pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with children's librarians from Sweden and Germany. In total eleven librarians working with children were interviewed. Five librarians from five libraries in Sweden and six librarians from five libraries in Germany took part. A model of three approaches to reading was used to analyze the empirical data collected from the interviews. Several aspects of what the librarians view as important in the storytime session were identified; the theoretic model used was not sufficient to reflect all aspects. Hence a fourth approach was created, putting emphasis on relationships within the reading situation and also the reading experience itself. The way the librarians describe how they adapted their storytime sessions during the COVID-19-pandemic shows that not all aspects could be transferred to the substitutes for storytime used, such as online storytime and outdoor storytime. Especially difficult to sustain was the aspect of building a relationship within the reading situation when resorting to online storytime. In Germany, a less favourable digital infrastructure further hindered transfer. There was also a pattern of viewing children as ”becomings” more often in Germany than in Sweden. The German librarians emphasize the role libraries can play in reducing socio-economic disadvantages for children in need of it and also link storytime ”fun” to possible positive consequences such as intellectual freedom. The Swedish librarians tend to view the reading experience during storytime as important in itself, which essentially is a children as ”beings”-perspective. In both countries, the librarians had to try new ways to reach young children during the pandemic. The study however suggests that in-person meetings is an intrinsic part of both Swedish and German children's librarianship. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.