Transmedial work with games in Swedish public libraries : Asurvey study

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to attain an understanding of the adoption and development of games and transmedia storytelling in Swedish public libraries. We studied the extent, the purposes and the way in which Swedish public libraries have included games and transmedia storytelling into their collections and programs. In order to fulfill the aim of the study a survey study was conducted. The survey was distributed to one public library in every Swedish municipality. The empirical material was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as the SCOT-model. Transmedia storytelling proved to be a difficult concept to study, therefore we focused mainly on its connection to gaming programs. The findings show that transmedial gaming programs are less common than regular gaming programs, and among these eight different types of programs were identified. Concerning the purposes for these different types of programs nine distinct categories were identified, which showed that the public libraries had diverse views regarding games and transmedial work with games in libraries. Through an analysis using the SCOT-model we reached the conclusion that the studied libraries’ adoption of games and transmedial work with games is in its early stages and that there are still problems to be solved before a consensus can be reached.