Bibliotekarien och boktipset : En normkritisk studie av bibliotekariers upplevelser av mötet med barn i biblioteksrummet

The aim of this study is to examine how norms about gender are constructed in the meeting with the library user as experienced by the librarian, with a focus on recommendation of books as a social practice. Questions that the study asks are if the librarians experience that norm critical notions are expressed in the meeting with the user, if the book recommendation as a social practice can strengthen and/or challenge norms and if the library as a room, what it contains and how it is structured, can affect the book recommendation as a social practice where norms are constructed or questioned. The study conducts interviews with six librarians who work with children’s literature, and parts of the interviews were done while walking through the children’s section at the participants libraries to respond to the question about how the room affects the book recommendation as a social practice. The theoretical framework that has been used consists of Connell’s theory about masculinity and Hirdman’s theory about the gender system and its gender contract. The results of the study shows that norms about gender are constructed in the book recommendation meeting with the library user, as experienced by the librarian, and it exists a gender contract at the library that contributes to reproduce a distinction between boys and girls. In the analysis a masculine reading hierarchy-model with three stages are presented, to understand how masculinity norms and the gender system affect boys reading habits, but also how the library room can affect it