Public libraries and youths playing video games a study of librarians attitudes and values concerning a new media at the library

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine librarians attitudes and values when it comes to the question if a new media, video games, should be introduced at the library or not. Video games are here seen as media primarily for youths. In our study we also wanted to study the discussions of quality and purchase, when computer games were introduced at the library. In order to answer our questions we conducted nine interviews with librarians working with children and youths, in eight libraries. By analysing their statements, using Maj Klassons theory where she defines the librarians role in three different strategies, we could demonstrate how the librarians reason when it comes to video and computer games, youths, quality and purchase. The results show that the strategy which was mostly used by the librarians, was the dialogue model. There is an aspiration to see new perspectives and to meet the demands and expectations of the library users, which to a large extent relies on the democratic values of the library. Further more, we could show that few of the librarians, were to be found in the marketing model and that video and computer games were the least priority area. Quite a few of the librarians statements ended up in the guardian model and we can conclude that they are concerned about the position of the book and the literary values. These values are transferred to other media, like video and computer games.Uppsatsnivå: