Multimodalitet i barnbibliotekariers läsfrämjande arbete

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to gain an understanding in children’s librarians usage of multimodal tools and different methods for expression in their work regarding promoting reading activities, in a public library context, and what effect these methods and tools have on the children participating in such activities. Empirical content was gained in the vein of qualitative studies through semi structured interviews with five children’s librarians. To analyze the results of the findings multimodal social semiotic theory and sociocultural theory were used. Our results show that the physical book – despite storytelling from other media –remain the common aim of promoting reading. And although many activities contain multimodal expressions, it isn’t something that most of the respondents are actively thinking about. Expressions seem to emerge by themselves, mostly because of – connected to younger children that don’t know how to read – how children's literature is composed: the combination of written words and pictures. The use of expressions seems to be mainly used for clarifying or amplifying purposes. Social contexts and social gatherings are regarded as even more important than the use of different expressions, though the analysis show that there is a collective understanding of the multimodal expressions beneficial aspects when it comes to the aim of getting children to gain interest towards books and reading. The red thread running through the promoting reading activities, according to the empirical findings, is interaction, social gatherings, making reading a joyous experience, communication and activities centered around creating.