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

In the paper we bring up and analyse the attitudes librarianshave towards youth and youth programs in the public library.The purpose is to raise awareness among librarians and tomake the process of change and development. We have usedsemi structured interviews in order to answer our researchquestions and conducted the interviews with five librarians incharge of the youth programs in different public libraries. Inthese interviews we asked about their views on youth as auser group, youth programs and how this affects theiropinions on the roles of the public library. We have also triedto see how the librarian’s opinions differ from how thelibrary runs their youth programs today.We have used two different models as theoretic framework.One of them has defined three different roles of the publiclibrarian and is constructed by Maj Klasson and the other is adeveloped version of Andersson & Skot-Hansen’s classicmodel of the roles of the public library made by Jochumsen,Rasmussen & Skot-Hansen. These models have been used tostructure the analysis of the material gathered from theinterviews.The informants in this paper show a positive attitude towardsyouth as a group and express a wish to make theirexperiences with the public library as good as possible.Overall they are satisfied with the way the youth programs intheir libraries work today but would like to develop it furthergiven more time and resources. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to find out how young adults experience the library and the space that they have access to. I used semi-structured interviews to find out about this and interviewed eight youths between the ages of 15 and 18 in a medium sized city in the province of Västra Götaland in Sweden. I then analyzed the material with the help of Goffman’s theory about front stage and back stage. I also did a small comparison with results from previous studies.The result showed that the youths generally liked the library and the staff but they had opinions on some issues. Several of the youths missed comfortable furniture in the adult section and enjoyed the furniture in the children and youth section. However, several of the young adults experienced that the volume of sound was disturbing in that section. All of them wanted there to be some form of youth room or youth section in the library. My analysis with Goffman’s theory showed that the youths overall saw the library as a front stage area and therefor tended to use it in that way, however, they tended to use the children and youth section more as a back stage area. The way the youths described how a youth room could be like made me realize that they wanted a place with both front and backstage qualities after their own needs. The results also had several things in common with previous studies. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this paper is to investigate who the visitors are at a children's department at amain library in a larger municipality, and for what purpose they use it. We discuss: Is therea difference between various user groups, and if so, how do they differ'? Which library rolesdoes the children's department have? Does the children's department serve as a local libraryfor those who live in the immediate surroundings or as a main library for the whole municipality?The paper is based on a user survey performed in the spring of 1996 at the City Library ofGothenburg. 417 visitors and five staff members were interviewed.The children's department is used by various groups of people, from young children to seniorcitizens. The library roles are, among other things, an independent learning center and formaleducation support center. The children's department functions both as a local library anda main library.

This thesis discusses how the identity connected to the City Library of Gothenburg youth section Dynamo is presented through their Instagram account. By applying a qualitative content analysis on all Instagram posts Dynamo posted during one year we aim to determine what defines Dynamos organisational identity. What aspects of the library youth section are highlighted on Instagram? By using Jochumsen et al.’s (2012) four space model we have tried to identify what kind of place Dynamo is presented as on Instagram. By using Ørom (1993) and Schreibers (2006) classification of different librarian identities we also examine what professional roles are featured on their Instagram account. This thesis also aims to outline what values are connected to Dynamos organisational identity. Our findings show that Dynamo mainly is presented as an inspiration space, when using the concepts described in the four space model. When it comes to how the librarian role is represented we have found that it can be described as a mediator of different experiences but also as social worker identity. The values connected to Dynamo are “the library services should be free”, an easy going attitude towards participation - the user shouldn’t feel performance anxiety” and “young culture should be promoted”.

The purpose of this essay was to explore how library staff work with the creation of a teen space. We have taken into consideration teen’s spatial needs and how the library staff have worked to satisfy these needs, as well as how the space can be designed to minimize conflicts that can occur between different library attendees. The method that’s been used was semi-structured interviews with library staff from four different libraries who’ve worked with creating or renovating a teen space. The results show that young library patrons use the examined teen spaces both as a retreat- and interaction space. Results show that teens are in need of a free zone where they can be themselves, express their opinions, be creative and explore. To satisfy this need the library staff have worked with the room’s placement and spatial barriers, furniture and equipment. Despite this the analyzed teen spaces cannot be fully considered free zones because they are not completely free from adult supervision. At the libraries where conflict arose between teens and other visitors, the teen space was set apart and screened off from the rest of the library spaces. These actions demonstrate that spatial solutions are not enough to solve conflicts, but rather the staff at these libraries would have to work with their own attitude towards teens as well as with the library visitors´. Results imply that it is not impossible to create a free zone for teens and at the same time design a space that encourages low-intensity meetings. Two of the examined libraries have in fact managed to create a low-intensity meeting place on a smaller scale. Results also indicate that good human and social conditions are just as important as the teen space to make the library into a functioning meeting place. The study demonstrates that teens' participation is an important requirement in the procedures if a library is going to be successful with their renovation. Teens contribute in fact with meaningful information of how their own room should be designed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine youth spaces in public libraries from an explorative point of view, by identifying which needs of the target group are currently being prioritized and what kind of obstacles needs to be overcome in the planning process. The approach chosen is the case study. Interviews were conducted with librarians working with youths, and observations of youth spaces were carried out in an attempt to gain information about usage. The material was processed through thematic analysis in a comparison between the three libraries and the theoretical framework used through the analysis is Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen & Skot-Hansen’s four-space model and its predecessor.Results from the study show that the examined libraries share similar experiences during the planning processes, and the found obstacles can be directed to either the category organization and planning (concerning the planning process and the lack of time, money or an understanding leadership) or architecture and interior (concerning the lack of space, adequate furniture or proper signage). The three main themes or library functions concerning the youth spaces are: 1, a relaxing place to hang out; 2, a rich, varied and easy accessible media collection; 3, a creative place to express oneself. The conducted observations reveal that the youth spaces are heavily used by library visitors outside the target group, with an age range from approximately 1 to 75 years.In conclusion I have found that the four-space model answers well enough to the three themes extracted from the results to support usage of the model in further studies applied to this specific area of research. A youth space which include all three themes would best answer to the many needs of the target group, although several obstacles must be overcome to reach this level. Furthermore there seems to exist a strong consensus about the importance of youth participation in planning processes, but a lack of knowledge concerning methods for reaching out to youths hinders this work.

Denna uppsats undersöker informationssökningsprocessen hos en grupp utvalda ungdomar på Örnsköldsviks stadsbibliotek. Syftet har varit att undersöka och förstå unga biblioteksbesökares information seeking behavior i ett annorlunda bokuppställningssystem. Örnsköldsviks stadsbibliotek valde, efter KB:s beslut om nedläggning av SAB 2008, ett relativt nytt sätt att placera och ställa upp sina böcker på. Det nya systemet kallas Rainbow och det guidar besökaren genom tydliga ämneskategorier, klartext och färger. Med Carol. C. Kuhlthaus ISP- modell i sex steg som stöd, vilken beskriver tankar, känslor och ageranden under en informationssökningsprocess, undersöks hur de unga besökarna tog sig an sin informationssökning på Örnsköldsviks bibliotek. Genom intervjuer och observationer av de unga biblioteksanvändarna, samt ytterligare intervjuer med bibliotekets bibliotekarier, har material och information insamlats och analyserats kring hur ungdomarnas informationssökningsprocesser gått till. Resultaten från undersökningen visade att de intentioner som informationssökaren initialt bär med sig i sökprocessen påverkar sökresultatet. Det visade sig också att känslor, tankar och ageranden, som respondenterna förväntades att uppleva, till viss del skilde sig från de upplevelser som Kuhlthaus respondenter beskrivit vid sina informationssökningar, och vilka har legat till grund för ISP- modellen. I och med att studien behandlar folkbibliotek och ungdomarnas fritid var respondenterna på Örnsköldsviks bibliotek inte heller lika medvetna, något som tycktes tydligt redan från start, om sin egen sökproces som Kuhlthaus respondenter varit. Men denna undersöknings respondenter uppgav dock att bokuppställningen i sig fungerade bra för dem att söka information i.