Alla får vara med! : En undersökning om ungdomars delaktighet i biblioteksverksamheten

Sammanfattning: Public libraries have begun to realize that they must try to develop the youth department, youth participation, and event planning in order to create an attractive meeting place youths can see as a resource in their lives. Librarians have also begun to realize that the youth department needs more space than it had before and preferably to not integrate youths with children, because youths would like to be seen as individuals and developing adults. Libraries also realize that they need to ask the youth what they want and need out of their library experience to make youth libraries a competing force and an advocate for youth development.The purpose of this paper was to investigate how youth librarians work with young individuals to make them involved in the library. The study is based on the theory of Positive Youth Development (PYD), which is centered on the need for young people to build relationships, feel involved, and feel needed to develop into well-rounded, healthy, and active individuals of society. The theory is based on previous research in various areas of youth development, compiled in order to build a clear and unified theory. For the gathering of empirical material, a qualitative method was used in which interviews were conducted with eight librarians in five libraries across Sweden.The results showed that youth librarians want to work with youths to improve their libraries and to be a resource for young library users. Most youth librarians are passionate about their jobs and wish to include youths in the planning and performing of library activities, as well as listen to their requests in issues about the library facilities, and they want to build a genuine connection with the youths both inside and outside of the libraries, as well as on social media platforms. However, youth librarians face difficulties in making these requests into reality; having to work against issues as the opinions of youths as problems shared by the adult public and other librarians, as well as working with a group as diverse as youths.