Folkbiblioteket som socialt rum ? en undersökning av biblioteken i två mindre kommuner
The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well. When put in relation to the material from the two small town libraries, the following aspects emerge as dominant: the library as a ?third place?, the library as a low-intensive meetingplace, the library as a space for inclusiveness and belongingness ? and in a perhaps slightly more indirect way also the library as a space for civic librarianship (in a Swedish sense) and learning aspects. The ways in which the library as social space is described can to a relatively large extent be related to a communicative discourse or civil society, although in some aspects also to the state and market discourses.