| Summary: | The focus of this two year's master thesis is on participation of children at the TioTretton Library, a library strictly for 10-13 year olds. No adults, except the library staff are allowed in this library. To build on this aim the objectives of this thesis is centred on the questions: How does the library staff view their specific library's mission? What are the conditions for children's participation at TioTretton Library? Based on the relevant theory of participation, how participatory are the children in the library's activities? What significance has TioTretton Library's work with children participation for the children's ability to empowerment? The theoretical framework is mainly centred upon the Ladder of Participation designed by R. A. Hart, which involves levels from non-participation to various degrees of participation. The theoretical framework also involves aspects of power and empowerment. The methodology of this study is an interpretive hermeneutic feature, which was applied on the answers from the conducted interviews of all of the staff of the TioTretton Library. The results showed the interesting and conclusive outcome that children participates in this library's development and activities between the step five and six of Hart's Ladder of Participation. It also showed that the staff view themselves mainly as facililtators in this library's context. The results also showed that children are able to influence the activities in this library to a great extent. I argue that because of this library's strict age limit, children who visit this library gets a unique kind of room of their own. Through the library's focus on children's participation the children also get an opportunity to strengthen their empowerment. I also argue that more research needs to be made in this particular library context, involving interviewing and observing the children, since this study only focuses on the interviewes of the staff.
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