“The library is where you meet the books” : Mentally disabled and their meeting with the public library out of an availability perspective.

The aim of this master thesis is to study what relationship mentally disabled adults have with the public library and what factors affect their meeting with the library. The work of the library is also studied so that the experiences of the mentally disabled can be put in relation to the work performed for the group. The method used was interviews with four mentally disabled adults and one librarian responsible for the social function and availability at the library. As a theoretical framework Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen’s model over the profiles of the library and Michael Buckland’s barriers, which must be overcome to achieve full access to information, were used. The informants have a positive attitude towards both the library and the library staff and visit the library regularly. They use the library primarily for borrowing different kinds of literature and two of the informants also use the library for study purposes. Factors that positively affect the meeting with the library are the librarians and sufficient and adapted signs and displays. The informants experience difficulties at the adult section of the library where the display is not adapted and when trying to use the computers. Many of the obstacles arise because of lack of know-ledge about the library among the mentally disabled and due to the lack of knowledge on the part of the librarians regarding this user group. To overcome these barriers user education and contact and cooperation between mentally disabled and the public library may be employed