The aim of this article is to present findings about the meaning of the 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 library emerging from the data analysis are a warehouse for books, a place of leisure and refuge, a place of strict order and quiet, and a service area. The library also appears as an opaque information system. Conclusions are that the library has potential to support an alternative discursive practice in a provided that the predominant meaning of the 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. Introduction and Purpose Few studies have explored what meanings students construct through library use, and the difficulty of identifying and describing what and how students learn through the library has been observed in earlier research. Streatfield and Markless (1994) acknowledged the problem for researchers in the title of their report, Invisible Learning. Their research interest was not to map library use, but to discern its effect on student learning. Their findings indicated that learning through the library was influenced by a variety of interacting factors (resources, organizational structures, pedagogical ideas) and by actors such as teachers, administrators, librarians, and students, that is, the school culture in which the library is set. Williams and Wavell (2001) found that enhanced student learning through the library was particularly evident in relation to life skills such as taking initiative, accepting responsibility for one's task, being independent in the use of time, and using one's freedom to explore topics of personal interest. Our research project, Learning through the library (LearnLib), aimed at exploring what meanings students construct through the library and how these meanings are constructed. According to Scanlon, Issroff, and Murphy (1999) and to Alexandersson (2002), meaning in contexts is constructed gradually, which involves continual change while work proceeds. Construction of meaning is a social process and may be understood as an interaction in which the students' thoughts and communicative actions take shape and where the students in various ways coordinate their actions. This interpretation is about intersubjectivity, which is connected to students' actions, both their verbal communication and the operations that they perform when they search for information through the library. The LearnLib project concentrated on how students use the library and other information paths and sources in order to seek and use information for their assignments. Our research interest was thus directed toward the library as a means of acquiring information for learning tasks. We view information seeking and use as a process that can be discerned, but cannot be isolated from other dimensions of an assignment such as subject matter, forms of presentation, and other frameworks for the completion of a task such as described by Kuhlthau (1993). In our study, we interpret the library as part of such frameworks. The focus of this article is on students' construction of meaning of the library as a space for learning including its various artifacts such as computers, books, pictures, and so on. Special Characteristics of School Libraries According to Ely (1992, cited in Thomas, 1999), a consequence of online information seeking and Internet connections is that the library is no longer a room, but a function. …
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