Bibliotek Plattan
en plats för inspiration, lärande och möten?
Public librariesLibrariansQualitative ResearchLibrary lawFolkbibliotekBibliotekarierKvalitativ metodBibliotek ? juridik och lagstiftning.
The main focal point of this study is about public libraries and its possible roles in today's society. Going from having had a clear educational orientation, public libraries has with time amassed several other roles, which all need to relate to the swedish law regarding libraries and other governing documents, as well as business plans. This thesis focus on a qualitative investigation, which was conducted through in-depth interviews with librarians and other staff at a public library in Stockholm, named bibliotek Plattan, to ascertain the prevailing opinions within this facility about the role of libraries and librarians. The choice of examine this particular library was based on the fact that bibliotek Plattan differs from the public library in general and only offers material for adults. Their collection of litterature is primarily based on fiction novels. As theoretical framework and analytical tool for this study a model of Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Skot-Hansen is used to analyse what the library can be. The model consists of four spaces: the inspiration space, the learning space, the meeting space, and the performative space. The results show that bibliotek Plattan has characteristics of all four space, though the characterisation library as inspiration space is the strongest influence. Other discoveries which were made showed that the informants wanted to a certain degree to return to a traditional role for libraries with reading and silence as the main elements, and the general view was that in the context of libraries, using the term meeting place was generally seen as negative, as well as that it can be problematic to be a specialised library as there are manyvying ideas and concepts of what a library is and should be. This is a two year's master thesis.