This Bachelor thesis studies the use of student employees at academic libraries, a subject that has been paid little attention in Swedish library and information science. The aim is to contribute with an increased knowledge and deeper understanding of how the work of student employees can be understood in relation to the library’s quality and accessibility. The main questions examine underlying causes for staffing with students, their tasks, the consequences that staffing with student employees might bring, and how the results of the above questions can be understood in relation to the library profession in the academic library. The method used is semistructured interviews, five of which were individual interviews with library management, and one which was a focus group interview with student employees. The interviews are analyzed in relation to earlier research and Andrew Abbotts theory of professions. The result shows that the underlying causes for using students to staff the library is foremost a willingness from the library’s side to offer generous openings hours, in combination with economical aspects. As the amount and character of reference questions are fairly low and don’t require the attention of a librarian, neither library management nor student employees see the work done by the student staff as a threat to the quality of the library’s service. However, the result indicate different views on how the use of student employees might affect the library profession and leads to a discussion concerning whether the work at the information desk is to be seen as part of the profession in academic libraries.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att undersöka om biblioterapi som utbildning och kompetens skulle kunna fungera stärkande för bibliotekarieprofessionen. Detta undersöktes genom att besvara följande forskningsfrågor: Hur definieras och tolkas begreppet och praktiken biblioterapi? I vilket läge befinner sig biblioterapi i Sverige idag? Hur skulle biblioterapi kunna vara en professionsstärkande bibliotekariekompetens? Studien är baserad på ett empiriskt underlag i form av fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med utvalda personer som har aktuell koppling till biblioterapi i Sverige. I ljuset av professionsteori och tidigare forskning om biblioterapi och bibliotekarieprofessionen visar studien att definitionen av biblioterapi inte är samstämmig i Sverige, som verkar befinna sig i sökandefasen gällande begreppet som kunskapsområde. Resultatet pekar på att biblioterapi fyller en viktig funktion som kompetensutveckling för bibliotekarier vilket i sig är stärkande i den professionella rollen, samt är uppskattat och starkt förankrat inom biblioteksväsendet. Slutsatsen av studien är att biblioterapi skulle kunna vara en professionsstärkande bibliotekariekompetens om begreppet tydligt definierades inom biblioteksvärlden och om fler uttalat professionsstärkande strategier genomfördes i enlighet med professionella projektet och nätverk samt målmedveten etablering inom utbildning, profession och praktik.

This thesis aims to describe the genre of librarypodcasts that have emerged in Sweden since 2013.Through the overall design of a comparative multiplecasestudy, the two pioneering examples ofCirkelpodden and Bibliotekspodden Solen are beingdescribed and compared, in order to contribute to abetter understanding of what these radio productionsconsist of, on what reasons they have been establishedand finally what this practice based on more explicitjournalistic working methods might implicate for theprofession of the public librarian.Thirty-three programs of Cirkelpodden andBibliotekspodden Solen published during 2103–2014 andtwo semi-structured interviews with the librarians ofthe podcasts are analysed through quantitative contentanalysis and qualitative thematic analysis. Thetheoretical framework is principally based on WiebeBijker’s model of two different ways to perceivetechnology: the deterministic view as an autonomousforce, and the constructivist view as an instrumentcontrolled by man.The results show that the main reasons to adopt thisweb 2.0 media format was to improve the library’straditional ways to talk about books. Besidespresenting books and problematizing the inhold of it,the podcasts were used to enhance the job satisfactionand to promote the library. The main conclusion ofthe study is that the these library podcasts could beinterpreted as expressions of an ongoing movementfrom a traditional conveying role of the publiclibrarian, towards a more content producing role, inwhich the podcast is used as an strategic instrumentfor exposing the librarians expertise and for exertingliterary criticism.

The aim of this Bachelor`s thesis is to examine what librarians who work with a biblioterapeutic method called ”Reading club” at a Swedish children´s hospital, think of their own professional identity. I have collected the data for the thesis with help from qualitative, semi-structured interviews and then analyzed the material I gathered by dividing the answers into different themes. In the analysis I then used the themes to structure my work. I have built my results on the theory in Andrew Abbott’s book The system of professions, about how professions clams jurisdiction in different arenas (1988). The librarians in my study describe that their working place, tools and the way they approach the children and youth at the hospital has changed since they started to work with the Reading club. They can clearly see that the reading sessions bring “KASAM” (which means a sense of coherence) to the children. Now, their most important tool is the book and they see it as if the book itself carries KASAM- potential. They have a close cooperation with the play therapy and have made it from the wards in to the rooms of the sickest children. Even though they describe their work as “bibliotherapeutic” they hesitate to call themselves bibliotherapists. To make distance towards nearby occupations they systematically evaluate their work and develop methods to define themselves and their work.

A vivid democracy requires participation from those who live in it, including children. Unlike adults, children have special laws and regulations to ensure them their democratic rights. Librarians’ decision on what to buy makes an impact to someone else, which puts the librarian in a hegemonic position. Therefore, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to, out of the child librarian’s perspective, view children’s participation at the public library in the matter of purchasing literature. The research questions examine the process of purchasing, how the children’s participation is apparent in it and also in the librarian’s work. The aim for this study is not to problematize the purpose nationwide, but simply to look into it in a smaller selection. Therefore the interviews have been limited to two and have been conducted with children’s librarians who operate in similar contexts. The results have been analyzed out of the theories concerning the librarian profession, the aspects of hegemony and participation using sense interpretation as an analysis. The results have shown that children’s participation is seen as important by the librarians but not always easy to implement. Also, they acknowledge the fact that publishing houses do have the power to decide what to release and not. As a link between politicians, the society and the publishers, the librarian is placed in an intermediate position which demands a great deal of competence. Furthermore, working on this study has shown that research on children’s participation from the children’s own perspective is needed.

Syftet med studien är att med intresse för könssegregering undersöka diskurser om bibliotek, bibliotekarier ochkvinnors roll inom arbetslivet. Empirin för studien är dokument publicerade inom tidsperioden 1850-talet till 1910-talet och som berör uppsatsens teman. Dessa analyseras utifrån en diskurspsykologisk samt en kompletterandeidéanalytisk ansats för att synliggöra tolkningsrepertoarer och maktrelationer. Studiens resultat visar på två förhållningssätt till och tolkningsrepertoarer baserat på traditionella normer inom de empiriska dokumenten. Dels den upprätthållande tolkningsrepertoaren, dels den utmanande tolkningsrepertoaren. Vidare synliggjordes genussystemets och det ostabila genuskontraktets inverkan på bibliotekarieyrkets status. / The aim of the study is to, with an interest in gender segregation, examine discourses about libraries, librarians and the role of women in working life. The empirical material for the study is documents published within the time period from the 1850s to the 1910s that touch on the themes of the essay. These are analyzed based on a discourse-psychological and a complementary idea-analytical approach to make interpretation repertoires and power relations visible. The results of the study show two approaches to, and interpretation repertoires based on traditional norms within the empirical documents. Partly the maintaining interpretation repertoire, partly the challenging interpretation repertoire. Furthermore, the impact of the gender system and the unstable gender contract on the status of librarianship was made visible

Library anxiety has been a concept since 1986, when Constance A. Mellon coined the phenomenon through her qualitative study on feelings that students experienced when interacting with academic libraries. In this essay we are looking at the origin of the concept through earlier research on the known barriers, trying to see what makes library anxiety unique compared to other seemingly related concepts, for example information anxiety. We’ve found many different concepts which can be part of library anxiety, or vice-versa, and many different extensions of LAS – the original scale to measure library anxiety. We aim to unravel some of those concepts we find of importance for library anxiety and its discourse. Looking at this through the lenses of Koselleck’s take on conceptual history, we see possible conflicts on where the concept library anxiety are heading; depending on what aspects of the concept the researcher read into and focusing on and in what context and time the articles were made. We also try to see who is considered responsible for shaping the discourse and if there is some kind of hegemonic struggle therein.