Reading is something that has not been obvious to those who have been admitted to prisons around Sweden. The reading was considered to be more of a rehabilitation of the interns and the reading was used to make them better people, a way to show that the prison made prisoners better citizens. It would take a while for the librarians to gain access to the prison libraries. However, it did not become very easy then. There was a high wall between the professional groups, the prison staff and the librarians and the communication between them was not the best. As a result, the work was thwarted and misunderstandings occurred. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that librarians got a breakthrough in the matter and the debate surrounding the neglect of prison libraries. Articles and books were written on the subject that raised the issue. This essay concerns the discussion that was held at this time through a discourse analysis, with the WPR approach and its analytical questions as tools. The method found that the problems behind the neglect of the prison libraries were not only the most obvious, that is, the financial shortage, but the evaluation of the interns' reading. When reading went from being a rehabilitative and educational issue to becoming more of an entertainment, its value diminished. By studying the discussions that took place during the time period, the problems could be identified and analysed. Subsequently, the solutions that were executed were identified and this thesis studied how the solutions coalesced in a major venture at Hall prison. The investment was made by the School Board and the Prison and Probation Service and was one of the largest investments made with serving librarians, newly built library, sufficient budget and a solid library service during the three years of the project.

The purpose of this study is to explore the social role of librarians at public libraries. Public libraries promote themselves as open democratic arenas where everyone is welcome. This has the effect that all kinds of people visit public libraries, and might result in disconcerting situations involving for example persons suffering from mental illness or intoxicated people. The library staff might then be expected to handle threats or violence, situations that they have not been prepared or trained for. Even less turbulent social situations can be hard to juggle, such as regular library users who are unwilling to end a conversation or people who want to get too personal. This study takes an explorative approach on the social role in public librarianship, investigating the problematic as well as the pleasant social situations in public libraries. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to collect statements from five librarians at various libraries. As a theoretical framework. Erving Goffman's theories about social interaction has been used to analyse the social role from a individual perspective. The concept ”community of practice" by Etienne Wenger has has been used to study the subject in a collective perspective. The results show that all the interviewed librarians saw themselves as having a social role but they approached it in different ways. Another conclusion is that the librarians in the study have formed a community of practice in the way they cooperate and the way they support and educate each other in connection to the social interactions with the library users.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how librarians in a Swedish public library work with collection management related intellectual freedom and Shoemaker & Vos (2009) gatekeeping levels. Intellectual freedom is the right to express, explore, consider and access ideas and information without restriction. Intellectual freedom is a United Nations human rights. Working with collection management, while trying to offer a variety of information and opinions without violating any societal groups may create ethical work dilemmas for librarians. Although regulated in Swedish legislation and local guidelines as media management plans, there is a risk collection management results in limiting information for the library user. The librarian becomes the gatekeeper; the person standing between information and the users.   This empirical material was gathered through semistructured qualitative interviews with librarians in a public library. The Library Manager and one of the librarians at the Freedom of Expression Library (Dawit Isaak-library) were also interviewed for additional perspectives. The empirical material was analyzed using Kurt Lewins (1947) gatekeeping theory and Schoemaker & Vos (2009) different gatekeeping levels as a theoretical analytical framework.   The results show that although the meaning of intellectual freedom was known, there was a lack of a common understanding of the concept. The media management plan is not an active guideline and the majority of librarians talked about collection management as a ”gut feeling”. The study shows ”gut feeling” easily results in limitations on an individual level. The study also shows that the gatekeeper role now rests with the user and not the librarian.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the librarian's role as an official at a public library. Hysing and Olsson describe the role of a public servant by portraying six different official types; the Bureaucrat, the Politicized official, the Street-level bureaucrat, the Entrepreneur, the Director and the Activist. By applying this theory and using qualitative document analysis when reading Biblioteksbladet from 2020, 27 articles were selected. It is important to keep in mind that the Corona pandemic has had a great influence on the result because of the chosen time period. A majority of the articles reflect the librarian as a Street-level bureaucrat who wants to be there for library visitors by keeping the libraries open during the pandemic. This period has also given the Entrepreneur opportunities to be new thinking and reach visitors in new ways by being creative. The visibility of the Bureaucrat comes mostly from the statements when answers are demanded from higher up in the hierarchy. Least visibility has the Activist and its commitment to societal issues. Articles not concerning the covid-19 virus show a Street-level bureaucrat whose greatest strength is the closeness to the citizens. With its central role in society and through direct contact, the librarian becomes a representative for the democratic system, but also a great starting point for effective policy.

This thesis is about the Färjestadens librarys users in a self-service libraries. Färjestadens library is a public library in Öland a island in the Balticsea in Sweden. The library moved to new facilities in April 2016. During these times they also obtained a new system: self-service libraries, which means that the user could use the library from 7 am to 10 pm every day of the week. This new change was interesting to examenine, how the users use the library room. Method to examine this was with interview guides and then transliterated and sorted in categories. The results in this studie where to answer two questions about how users used the self service and the second question what function did it have on the users? The findings were that Färjestadens library users use the library three of the four spaces/functions in the library.

The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about the discourses that appear in the media concerning the librarian, as an official, in a political landscape. The method and theory used is critical discourse analysis, based on Fairclough's three-dimensional model for discourse analysis. 47 articles, editorials and debate articles related to the Lenninger affair have been analysed. Through the material three discourses emerge: The discourse of the correct and knowledgeable official, The discourse of the politician who owns the cultural policy issue and The discourse of the absent librarian.Together the discourses show the complex interplay that exists between librarians and politicians in a changing political landscape. The established image of politicians who stay at arm's length from library activities is under negotiation. With new parties the former roles are no longer self-evident. The arms of politicians can be perceived as getting shorter.The study shows the importance of finding an approach to the new political landscape as an official. The librarian also needs to be active in defining his own professional role and to be heard in the debate about professional ethics and what role the library should have in society. Politicians who do not listen to the librarian’s knowledge risk creating a breeding ground for activist librarians who shape the library's activities based on their own values. The legitimacy of the library appears to be threatened if there is not a clear common vision for it from librarians and politicians.

Librarians with a teaching role in higher education need to collaborate with the faculty. The aim of this thesis is to identify the importance of a well communicative collaboration and what difference it makes to the students. Information literacy is a central concept for librarian’s teaching, but it may not be well known by students. The collection of empirical material took place in Southern Sweden. Five librarians with a teaching role were interviewed at their workplace and it was four different universities. The semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed. The transcribed material was analyzed with Yrjö Engeströms cultural-historical activity theory to explore the terms of the teaching librarian’s success. The literature view was divided in three themes in order to understand the development and context of the teaching librarian. The meaning of the concept information literacy has not always been the same and is one of the themes in the literature review. Information literacy is the foundation of the supporting role of the librarian. Findings of the interviews shows that the collaboration is significant for student’s development of information literacy. Students need help from librarians with different kinds of matter. Librarians helpfulness is useful for senior student’s thesis writing. The teaching librarian´s objective is to support the students and researchers on the university. Knowledge and resources is a part of the tools librarians need to succeed. The collaboration between librarians and teacher is the key element to invite the students to the library and librarian’s knowledge.

Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka vad lärare menar att de grundar sina val av skönlitteratur i, vid högläsning och individuell läsning. Syftet är också att undersöka vilka arbetssätt lärare menar att de använder vid bearbetning av skönlitteratur. För att ta reda på detta har åtta lärare intervjuats och deras svar har sedan granskats och analyserats med koppling till teoretiska perspektiv och tidigare forskning. Som teoretisk bakgrund till vår analys har de didaktiska frågorna Hur?, Vad?, Vem? och Varför? använts. Resultatet synliggör sex teman som tillsammans besvarar våra frågeställningar. Lärare grundar sina val vid högläsning och individuell läsning på om texterna är elevnära och har ett innehåll som fångar elevers intresse. Valen kan för några av lärarna grundas i vilken författare som skrivit boken. Bibliotekets utbud och bibliotekarien kan också ha en påverkan på valet samt kan temaområde eller värdegrundsarbete styra. Arbetssätten som är framträdande är boksamtal samt boktillverkning och gestaltning.

This study is a literature review with a qualitative research approach of previously written bachelor thesis about the perception of librarianship. The literature search was done through the database DiVA, with fixed premises. The papers that were chosen studied either the perception of librarianship from the outside world (for example community, users, popular culture, newspapers) or librarians’ own perception of the profession. The purpose of the study has been to determine perceptions of librarianship, if stereotypes about the profession lives on and what that could say about the profession’s status in general, which have been described as low. The conclusion is that stereotypes do appear in popular culture and that the librarian, for the most part, is seen as a reading person with a great passion for books and is almost always tied with the library. Librarians see themselves as service minded, competent and acknowledges the users’ need as their primary job. The low status of the profession is mostly visible through the eyes of some librarians and students, who feels the need to defend their knowledge and competence, but also in the way stereotypes are portrayed. All in all, though, librarians are seen as neutral – neither in a negative or positive way. A way to develop the research about perceptions of librarianship is to see if and how it affects the librarians daily professional life.

Det har skett en samhällsförändring eftersom Sverige har tagit emot ett stort antal asylsökande, vilket har uttryckt sig i en ny bibliotekslag (2014) som understryker att biblioteken skall ha särskild fokus på prioriterade grupper. Uppsatsen undersöker hur biblioteken arbetar med integrationsfrämjande insatser, om bibliotekarier upplever att sin arbetsroll har förändrats, vilka resultat de anser att man uppnår, samt om det finns skillnader i hur det integrationsfrämjande arbetet upplevs bland olika typer av bibliotekarier, i olika typer av bibliotek och i olika typer av närområde. Den teoretiska ansatsen utgår i majoritet från Vårheims (2011) teori om att skapa socialt kapital i folkbiblioteken, Pilerot & Hultgrens (2017) sammanställning av enkätundersökningar, Ager och Strangs (2008) integrationsmodell samt Skot-Hansen och Anderssons (1994) teori om bibliotekens fyra centrum. Resultatet och analysen är förankrad i studiens empiriska material som består av djupintervjuer med bibliotekarier. Studien ger tecken på en förändring eller förstärkt uppdrag hos biblioteken gällande integrationsfrämjande som i sin tur leder till en förändring av bibliotekariers arbetsroll, samt hur biblioteken utformar sitt arbete baserat på närområdet. Dessutom påvisar den betydelsen av socialiserande aktiviteter för nyanlända i biblioteken. Samtliga respondenter i studien upplever att man når goda resultat trots att det finns stora utvecklingsområden.