“From words to action“ : The role of makerspaces in public libraries

The aim of this thesis is to examine the opinions of Swedish public library staff, managing makerspaces, regarding the role of their spaces. The material is derived from four semi-structured interwievs with, and four e-mail answers from staff managing makerspaces at seven public libraries in Sweden. Directed content analysis was used to interpret the results of the empirical study. The theoretical framework is based on a model for library development presented in 2012 by the Danish researchers Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Dorte Skot-Hansen. According to the model, the library´s mission is to support the following four goals: experience, involvement, empowerment, and innovation. The model also presents four spaces, in which the goals should be supported. These spaces are: the inspiration space, the learning space, the meeting space, and the performative space. The results show that the interviewees view makerspaces in their public libraries as a way to promote democracy and digital inclusion by offering collaborative learnings spaces