Glöm inte barnteatern! En studie om barnteater på folkbiblioteket.
This master?s thesis deals with the issue of children?s theatre at the public library. I want to examine what purpose children?s theatre play for the children according to the children?s librarians, what different factors that may influence the purchase of plays to the public library and what the children?s librarians think of the children?s theatre at the public library at present and in the future. Interviews have been conducted with four children?s librarians, at different libraries, who are somehow involved in the purchase of children?s plays to the library. The material has then been analysed with the help of the theories and earlier research. The theories applied consist of two different parts. Firstly, I look into the new way of looking at childhood as a social construction, which has emerged in the last couple of decades. This is used as a framework and is applied on the thesis as a whole. I also apply Karin Helander?s theory of the three purposes of children?s theatre. The findings show that the librarians think that all three purposes of children?s theatre are important, but the most important one is the educational purpose. At the purchase of children?s theatre there are a lot of factors to take in consideration, the librarians find the most important ones to be those of practical origin, for example the premises available and the price of the performances. All of the librarians think that the children?s theatre is important at the public library but time and money are the biggest threats towards it.