Jakten på den manliga biblioteksanvändaren : En undersökning av hur biblioteket arbetar för att nå fler manliga besökare

Sammanfattning: National and international studies have shown an existing trend where less men than women visit a library on a regular basis. In consideration of the importance of the democratic values that the library represents such a large gap in gender demographics is a problem that librarians need to be aware of. These gender trends is a reflection of a larger problem that exists within our societies where masculine ideologies prevents many boys and men from openly enjoying reading, school studies and, thus, regular library visits. How can we as librarians and information scientists then work towards bridging that gap, and how does an awareness of these gender issues affect our planning and daily routines? These questions are at the center of this thesis and are examined through interviews with four librarians. These librarians all work at libraries that have acknowledged the gender problem by incorporating activities specifically catered to male users into their program. The empirical material has been analyzed using sociological gender theories in an attempt to place the interviewee’s answers within a broader social context. The results shows that the librarians interviewed for the study tends to be very aware of the unbalance between the genders of their users and considers it to be an important problem to solve. This can successfully be done by trying to incorporate more men into the libraries activities through special programs such as male book discussion groups. Since male patrons start dropping off at an early age it is however also of great importance that the library spends resources on working with children and teenagers in an attempt towards bridging the existing gender gap.