”Man ska kunna komma in vit i ansiktet utan att det är någon som gnäller på en” : En studie av en Unga vuxna-avdelning.

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to examine whether the youth section, named ‘Young adults’, in the library in our study is justified or not. We will do this by examining connections between society’s and the library’s views on youth and youth culture. In our study we examine the purpose of the young adult-department and which measures are taken to reach the purposes. Furthermore our intention is to study which fields of use the young adult-department offers and how they correlate to the users needs. To gather information we have used a qualitative method based on interviews with the librarian responsible for the department and with 15 users. We have also taken notes and made observations to complement the interviews. We have analysed our material by using Ove Sernhede’s theories of society’s view on youths as a threat and Marianne Andersson’s and Dorte Skot-Hansen’s theories on the possible areas of use that a library offers. Our study shows that there are clear connections between society’s and the library’s view on young adults. In our material we notice a change in the way young adults are viewed; society and libraries are moving towards seeing youth culture as something positive and creative. However, this change of view does not include all youth cultures. A provocative collection that is built on requests from users is part of the aim to attract more young adults to the library. We come to the conclusion that the use of the department is mostly cultural and to some extent social.The department shows consideration regarding the requests of their users, and are tolerant towards different kinds of youth cultures. A majority of the books and other types of media in the department bring up subjects that are of interest and concern to the users. Therefore we consider the Young adult-department to be justified.