“Drugs in the bathrooms, graffiti, taking a wee in the flowerpots.” : A qualitative study of disturbances in public libraries

The goal of this study is to investigate different types of disturbances at public libraries and how these can be understood with the help of different interpretations of what the main purpose of the library is, as well as how limits of acceptable behaviour is negotiated between stakeholders. The Swedish library act of 2013 establishes everyone’s right to use the public library. This however means that people from many different walks of life and from different parts of society will meet under one roof, which causes tensions between different interpretations of what the library is really for. In addition, previous research and many articles show that there are often different types of disturbances, ranging from loudness to sexual harassment and violence, as well as other inappropriate behaviour. This lays the foundation for our investigation. The theoretical base stems from theories by Audunson (2005) and Hedemark (2009) which both establish different interpretations of what the library is for. Based on this we create our own categories of ways of viewing what the library room’s mainpurpose is. Through the means of qualitative interviews with library staff we identify how they describe the room and how they work around different types of disturbances that occur at their library. The results show that the informants describe several different types of disturbances. However, they are all clear that they draw the line when other library users are being affected negatively by disturbing behaviour. In addition, we conclude that the layout and furnishings of the room are very important in order to discourage unwanted behaviour. We also notice that layout and furnishings at times lead to increased volumes of unwanted behaviour. Lastly, we conclude that disturbance, as well as the library room, are social constructs which are formed depending on social context.