Nordic Children Librarians’ work with children’s participation during the covid-19 pandemic.

In this study, Nordic children’s librarians work with promoting children’s participation during the covid-19 pandemic is investigated. Focus is in particular on how the participants ways of working have changed and what difficulties and opportunities were brought by the pandemic. The theoretical framework is based on two models for children’s participation and the concepts of child perspective, children’s perspectives, empowerment and view of children. Ten qualitative, semistructured interviews were conducted. The empirical data were analyzed and structured according to a theory-driven approach. The results show that the restrictions which have been imposed on the physical library room have led to various difficulties in the children's librarians abilities to communicate and interact with the children. This, in turn, has affected the participants' possibilities to include, inspire, involve and challenge the children in the library activities. Furthermore, the results show that the children's librarians child perspective has not been able to meet the children's own perspective to the same extent as before, which has led to the children's influence in the activities diminishing. However, the transition to digital channels and fora has brought new opportunities to enable participation, albeit in a changed form. Further research is needed on how the changed conditions for children’s participation in the library activities can be understood from the perspectives of children and their adults. Studies regarding the participation of especially vulnerable children and children with disabilities are also suggested