The aim of this article is to present findings about the meaning of the school library as a space for learning as experienced by students. This complex aim implies a theoretical framework that consists of a sociocultural perspective on learning and a phenomenological perspective of space. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and questionnaires in seven schools (8- to 19-year-old students) during one year. Among the various meanings of the school library emerging from the data analysis are a warehouse area. The school library also appears as an opaque information system. Conclusions are that the library has potential to support an alternative discursive practice in a school provided that the predominant meaning of the school library as a warehouse for books is challenged by other meanings such as a space for free discourse and intellectual activity, as well as a space for collective rather than individual action
Validerad; 2003; 20080826 (andbra)