Summary: | This thesis is a qualitative examination of main libraries’ work with accessible media. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight librarians working towards children and youth, the purpose of this study is to examine the opportunities and challenges presented by new digital aspects in accessible media. This was accomplished by reviewing the informants’ statements through a self-developed tool of analysis. This tool mirrored the purpose of the study and was developed by compiling the results of previous studies into themes. These themes were then further developed in concurrence with transcriptions of the interviews.The findings of the study were that the librarians were aware that readers with a need for accessible media are invisible, but lack the time to apply sufficient directed operations to make them visible. However, this invisibility also worked through a new mobile app for distributing talking books, Legimus, to normalize the need for accessible media. Thus the work often centered around a balancing act between making these readers visible and not distinguishing them as outliers. In part because of new digital features, there was a lack of direct contact with members of the intended group. This was bridged by contacting and/or collaborating with a third party like relatives or other professionals. Physical titles available within accessible media are limited but because of Legimus this was not the case for talking books. The group’s status as especially prioritized was emphasized by all informants, although they often felt time lacking to properly apply that priority.
|