Videogames : Of Course: Hermeneutic study on views regarding videogames at four Swedish public libraries

The purpose of this thesis is to attain a deepened understanding concerning views on videogames at four Swedish public libraries, especially in relation to library practice and how videogames fit within this context. It also aims to provide insight as to why these libraries have included videogames in their collections and what thoughts were behind it. To fulfill this aim we conducted a qualitative hermeneutic study, using interviews as the main source of research material, but also written materials and a lecture on the city library of Malmö and how they work with videogames. The theoretical framework of the study is founded on Dorte Skot-Hansen’s and Douglas Raber’s theories on the values, roles and functions of public libraries. Based on this and on our own research material we define seven themes to use as analytical tools in structuring and interpreting our findings. Our findings show that the main reasons for introducing videogames relate to conceptions of videogames as a cultural medium, to democratic concerns to increase availability and to make the library relevant to more citizens, as well as to an aim to correspond to the interests of the community members. To do this, the libraries strive to make available a wide collection of games, but may also pay extra attention to more specific concerns. Important to the selection process are user’s requests and, to some extent, the contents of the games (e.g. that the most violent games are usually not acquired), but also the traditional method of review-based selection.Uppsatsnivå: