Barnbibliotekariers inköp av ungdomsböcker
The purpose of this Masters thesis is to accomplish an understanding for childrens librarians purchases of juvenile books. Two main questions are to be answered: - Which considerations do childrens librarians do when buying juvenile books and which goals and motives are behind their purchases? - What do childrens librarians think that their knowledge and competence consists of and how is that knowledge useful when buying juvenile books? To answer the questions qualitative interviews with five childrens librarians have been carried out. The material has been analyzed through a theoretical construction consisting of theories about collection development, book selection and quality judgments. The conception tacit knowledge silent knowledge from Michael Polanyi has also been used for interpretation. The findings show that childrens librarians do several different judgments when deciding to buy a book. These judgments can be divided into three main categories: judgments about quality, judgments concerning the needs of users and judgments about collection development. Their motives behind their purchases are to buy books that can provide reading stimulation, language development and personal development for the young readers. The childrens librarians say that knowledge about books, about young peoples reading preferences and knowledge about their own library collection is what constitutes their competence.