The purpose of this study is to analyze how the blog as an arena is being used by youngpeople to discuss and reflect on reading and literature, and what purpose the blog as an arenahas for them in the forming of identity. The method used in this study is qualitative contentanalysis. Prior research is divided into two themes: young people’s reading, and young peoplein group constellations in and outside of the blogosphere. The theoretical framework is madeup of Louise M. Rosenblatt's theory on reading Etienne Wenger's theory on communities ofpractice.The analysis is based on book blogs by young people on literature and their literaryexperiences in the blog, and how the blog works as an arena in their identity formation. Theresults show that blogs and social interaction within them give young people perspectives ontheir own personality as readers and on their own lives. As book bloggers, the membersbecome part of a whole, a defined group. The reading of fiction and blog-based writing andreading works to include them in a group and gives young people an opportunity to developand identify themselves both as readers, "booknerds" and as book bloggers. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This thesis is based on a study conducted at the City Library Dynamo in Gothenburg where data have been collected through qualitative interviews with young people aged 15 - 25 years. Our intention was to examine what young people think about the City Library Dynamo as a venue, and how they perceive its activities and functions.In order to compare two different cultural venues for young people, where Dynamo is one, interviews were also conducted at a location other than the library, at Arena 29, a cultural activity house for young people in Gothenburg. Twelve qualitative and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to collect data which was then transcribed and structured. As a theoretical framework we have used the new model for the public library, developed by Hvenegaard, Jochumsen and Skot-Hansen 2010.Our result shows a thoroughly positive image of the City Library Dynamo, particularly as a meeting and study place. Young people stated that they felt welcome and that the City Library Dynamo was designed and tailored to match their needs. Through our interviews, we understood that the need to feel recognized and welcomed is primary for this age group, regardless the type of institution. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Bakgrund: Gymnasieskolan är en stor del av de flesta ungdomars liv. Forskning visar att elevers beslut påverkas av föräldrars sociala bakgrund och de rådande normer och värderingarna som verkar i samhället men också att det finns differenser i hur elever vid olika programinriktningar planerar sin framtid. Det är viktigt för individen att göra rätt val för att få en bra start på sin utbildningsresa, detta ökar behovet av information inför gymnasievalet. Informationskällor som underlättar elevens beslut är av stor vikt för att eleven skall göra ett bra gymnasieval.Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i hur elever vid teoretiska och praktiska program planerar sin framtid gällande studier och arbete. Vi är även intresserade av att undersöka hur föräldrars utbildningsnivå påverkar elevens val av gymnasium och syn på vidare studier och arbete. Slutligen vill vi undersöka hur gymnasieelever får tillgång till information om gymnasievalet samt om de upplever denna information tillräcklig.Metod: Undersökningen utgår från en kvantitativ ansats där vi använt oss av en elektronisk enkät för att komma i kontakt med våra respondenter.Resultat: De resultat vi kommit fram till tyder på att det finns skillnader i hur elever vid olikagymnasieinriktningar motiverar sina val, ser på sin utbildning och hur de planerar sinframtid vad gäller skola och arbete. Ytterligare faktorer som spelar in är föräldrars utbildningsbakgrund vilket kan relateras till den sociala bakgrundens påverkan av elevens utbildningsval. / Program: Organisations- och personalutvecklare i samhället

Social media have become a bigger and bigger aspect of daily life for many ages and especially within the youth culture growing from digital interactions. At the same time libraries seems eager to use this medium to reach out to the youth to inform and to educate. But do we know enough about how these two groups’ views each other to be effective at this work? And is it even something that is wanted? What’s the image of social media from their point of view?The goal of this study is to investigate the image of social media from the point of view of two groups, librarians and youth. The study is based on a qualitative approach with a random selection of candidates. A semi-structured interview is the main method of collecting the data from these candidates, as it will give the best material matching the goal of the study.The paper has found that many of the candidates for the study, “even” though they think there will be a clear future for library use of social medias, still value the physical aspects of the library and more interactions face to face. In fact many of them think one can lose parts of what makes libraries and the library space so appreciated by youth, if they put too much of their resources into a digital format. However the results in this paper have been based on a sample study of a smaller group of candidates and so are in no way onclusive for the majority of the people within these two groups. Hopefully this study will nspire future studies into the interactions between these groups. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This thesis is an attempt to study computer games and playful computer programs for childrenand youth at Swedish public libraries. The main method used, is qualitative interviews.The main reason the libraries in the study offer computer games and playful computer programsto their users, is that every member of the society shall have opportunity to use newtechnology such as computers and computer programs. The users of this media are for themost part boys. The librarians in our study wish to have pedagogical games and programswithout violent themes at their libraries. Lending computer games and computer programs isnot of any priority for the libraries.

A study around some fourteen and fifteen year old boys, who are interested in reading. It is about their reading and library habits, what has created their interest and where they acquire access to literature. A certain amount deals with the habits of the boys’ school-friends in this subject. The result compares with earlier made reports. The study is built on interviews between six boys, a children librarian at a public library and a school librarian. Furthermore, a questionnaire has been carried out among 79 school-friends to the interviewed boys. The result of the report indicates that the foundation of the boys’ reading interests begins at an early age within the family and mainly through their mothers’ influence. The boys’ main access to literature is acquired mostly in the home in the families’ own library. The boys prefer to buy their own books, rather than visiting the public library. The reason for this is that they do not feel at home in the library. They have difficulties in finding what they want. The supply of popular literature and music is limited. On the contrary, they are busy visitors to the school library, where they feel more at home. The supply is there more adapted to their demands. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This Master’s thesis concerns the question why a public library establishes a special room for young people and how the young people can influence the activities. I have made interviews with two librarians and four teenagers from a reference group. I have also made an observation of the room. The most important theories are Pierre Bourdieu’stheory of symbolic capital and Mats Lieberg’s theory of free zones. The method used is a qualitative study. The answersfrom the interviews are analysed according to different categories. The results show that young people have a special taste which is shown in the room for young people and that efforts to make young people involved in the planning of activities are very important. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the importance of a school library for youths, age 14-16, from their perspective. We intend to study how they use and experience the school library both for educational- and leisure related purposes. We also intend to inquire their possibility to influence their school library. The literature that has been used consists of material from research concerning youth culture and school library. The method used is interviews with twelve youths from four different classes on one school, an extensive interview with a school librarian and a shorter, less extensive interview with a teacher. The theoretical framework in this thesis comes from Elisabeth Tallaksen Rafste’s concepts about which the users are, how they use it and the importance of the school library. The study shows that all the youths in the study use the school library for educational purposes, a place for work. Only the regular users also use the library as a meeting place and for other leisure related purposes. The regular users represents foremost of the boys in the study and they decide the norms. The girls do not use the school library for leisure related purposes. In addition, the school librarian is significant for how the youths experience and use the school library in different ways. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether the youth section, named ‘Young adults’, in the library in our study is justified or not. We will do this by examining connections between society’s and the library’s views on youth and youth culture. In our study we examine the purpose of the young adult-department and which measures are taken to reach the purposes. Furthermore our intention is to study which fields of use the young adult-department offers and how they correlate to the users needs. To gather information we have used a qualitative method based on interviews with the librarian responsible for the department and with 15 users. We have also taken notes and made observations to complement the interviews. We have analysed our material by using Ove Sernhede’s theories of society’s view on youths as a threat and Marianne Andersson’s and Dorte Skot-Hansen’s theories on the possible areas of use that a library offers. Our study shows that there are clear connections between society’s and the library’s view on young adults. In our material we notice a change in the way young adults are viewed; society and libraries are moving towards seeing youth culture as something positive and creative. However, this change of view does not include all youth cultures. A provocative collection that is built on requests from users is part of the aim to attract more young adults to the library. We come to the conclusion that the use of the department is mostly cultural and to some extent social.The department shows consideration regarding the requests of their users, and are tolerant towards different kinds of youth cultures. A majority of the books and other types of media in the department bring up subjects that are of interest and concern to the users. Therefore we consider the Young adult-department to be justified. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine seven public librarians’ attitudes towards manga as a new kind of literature in public libraries. Manga is an art form, originally from Japan, but in recent years manga has become very popular in the Western societies. The main issue of this thesis is how the librarians’ look at manga and what they think about manga. In this thesis I also discuss to what extension the public libraries in this study have manga in their collections, what the librarians think that public libraries today should offer their visitors and what is important to discuss when the librarians purchase books and other new media to the library. In order to answer these questions I conducted interviews with seven public librarians in children and youth departments in five public libraries in the north of Sweden. This study shows that the librarians are positive in their attitudes towards manga. Their opinion is that the public libraries could offer manga, but they think that quality is very important and they will be sure about the top-quality in the manga they offer. The librarians’ main opinion is that their lack of knowledge in manga is a problem. In this thesis I use Herbert J. Gans theory about taste cultures and taste publics and my conclusion is that there is a relation between the librarians’ knowledge and to which taste culture they belong. / Uppsatsnivå: D