What's Harry Potter Doing in the Library

Depictions of Young Adult Information Seeking Behaviour in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction

Abstract

This paper uses qualitative, textual analysis of selected prominent contemporary young adult fantasy stories. These books--Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Artemis Fowl, and Garth Nix's Lirael--in addition to creating captivating magical worlds, also depict a part of our every day world in their use of libraries as settings (in the case of Harry Potter and Lirael) and the use of computers for information seeking (as seen in Artemis Fowl). These images are examined for their portrayal of library use and other information seeking behaviors.