Young people’s reading comprehension is deteriorating, and their reading habits are declining. Librarians are given a mission to promote reading, where young people are a priority target group. To render this mission more effective, librarians’ views on this problem and how they try to tackle should be studied. The purpose of this thesis is to identify (i)librarians’ approach to young people’s reading, and(ii) how they describe and experience reading promotion work for the target group through semi-structured interviews with six professional children and youth librarians.

Given the gender gap in reading comprehension in favor of girls, this thesis devotes extra attention to this issue in the interviews with the librarians. Interviewees mention (i) lack of interest, (ii) lack of role models at home, (iii) gender stereotypes, and (iv)socioeconomic background as major factors causing this gap.

Moreover, majority of the participants believe that young people should read what they want to read according to their interests. That is, the emancipatory approach is dominant in the reading promotion work of the interviewees conducted, but other approaches are also visible in their work. This is in line with research within psychology and pedagogy on reading promotion. I also report that librarians’ strategies and approaches to reading are important especially for young people with low reading motivation.

Finally, informants describe changing negative reading attitudes among adolescents a major challenge. Yet, they find it fun to work with adolescents. They suggest preventive measures such as building a reading culture early in life.