This case study examines three newly renovated children’s sections at the city libraries in Borås, Göteborg and Malmö. The aim is to investigate, from a spatial and socio-cultural perspective, what characterizes modern children’s sections at public libraries. The research questions look at the intentions behind the constructions of the spaces, how concepts like child participation and perspectives on childhood have been used, how the children interact with one another and the room itself, and finally how the librarians and other staff members’ work environments have been affected by the changes. I have conducted six qualitative interviews with librarians and other staff members at the libraries in question and combined the interviews with observations of the children’s sections. The material is analyzed with the theoretical frameworks from several research fields like human geography. The main theoretic tool is the four-space model. This is used to place the testimonies and observation findings in four abstract spaces; inspiration space, learning space, meeting space and the performative space. The result shows that all three libraries have based their projects heavily on children’s play and child participation. The library spaces have all been designed with a child perspective in mind and they are colourful and creative for the children to discover. The staffs have had to come to terms with the changes in their work environment and maybe we have to revalue what it means to work at a children’s library. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The purpose of this thesis work is to provide knowledge about the librarian´s view of the competence required in the work towards and with immigrants. The information was collected by interviewing seven librarians at four public libraries, using semi-structured interviews. Lundmark´s competence model was used to analyse the material. The conclusion of this study is; knowledge of languages is considered particularly important by the interviewed librarians. At the same time, the knowledge of languages is one of the professional competences they consider themselves lacking. Treatment and personal competences related to treatment are also described as particularly important, the librarians are of the opinion that they possess these competences. Other competences considered important in working towards and with immigrants are patience and foresight. Aside from treatment, this study's informants consider they have strengths in the traditional competences of the profession; literature and provision of information. The informants consider they not only lack competence in languages, but also lack professional competence about what functions are provided by the community and the workflow between the actors, to guide the immigrants and help them finding answers to their question. The informants also experience communication difficulties with the different actors in the community, working towards and with immigrants.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how librarians who work with young people as their main target group view youth participation in public libraries, in particular inactivities directed to young people. Earlier studies find that young people appreciate libraries, but they also see libraries as more relevant for younger children and not so much for themselves. The research questions are: How do librarians experience working with participation in relation to young people as a target group? What efforts are being made to increase the participation of young people at district libraries? How does communication between librarians and young people work? The empirical material was collected by semistructured interviews with public librarians who work with young people as their main target group. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis together with Roger Hart’s ‘Ladder of children’s participation’, which was modified to better fit the purpose of this thesis. The results show the willingness of librarians to develop youth participation, but also the difficulties of identifying young people’s expectations of the library.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how perceptions of the public library are expressed in Swedish debates about the public library during the period of 2016-2018. The debates centered around questions regarding what the public library is, what it should be and to whom it should be for. Two main concerns were formulated within the two greater debates. One was that there is an increasing problem with noisy, threatening and violent groups at the public libraries and the other was that librarians are ideology controlled when making decisions on the media in the library. The main questions posed in this study are: which images of the public library can be found in the debates and who are given the possibility to express these images? The analysis shows that perceptions of the public library as an important institution in a democratic society is consistent through all debates and the discourses within them. But there are different ideas about things that threaten the public library, depending on the view of what the ideal public library should be and what their main concern should involve. Our study also shows that the library has become a place for debates about questions that doesn’t directly relate to the institution as such, but about immigration and the extreme right and that the articles that relate more about that have had far bigger response than the articles about the library as a place and how it should meet new challenges with changes in the media climate and a descending circulation numbers.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine which skills Swedish public librarians consider necessary for their work with e-books regarding the acquisition and handling of e-books, as well as the meeting with the user. This study also examines how the librarian’s role as mediator has changed due to e-books, according to librarians. The method used to collect the data was a digital survey that was distributed to 75 public libraries in Sweden and Lundmark’s “skill flower” and Abbotts theory of professions were used to analyze the results. The survey received answers from 132 respondents that showed that it is important for librarians to have technological skills in order to assist users with problems regarding e-books. Librarians should also have a good understanding of how the relationship between the library and the e-book provider works in order to understand why there are certain limitations surrounding e-books. It is also important for librarians to be able to communicate and listen to the users’ problems, as well as inform the users of e-book services at the library. The biggest change for librarians role as mediator is that there are new things that needs to be mediated to the users and librarians need new skills, such as technological skills, to be able to do this. Other skills such as pedagogical skills and literature knowledge the librarians already possess, they simply need to adapt them to newer technologies.

I dagens moderna samhälle är teknik centralt, dock omtalas ofta teknik som ett manligt område. Om genusstereotyper förekommer i skolans teknikundervisning riskerar eleverna bli begränsade i det tekniska sammanhang de växer upp i. Syftet med studien var att belysa det tekniska sammanhang som skapas av lärares teknikundervisning, elevers möte med teknik i skönlitteratur och bibliotekariers möjlighet att påverka dessa. Följande frågeställningar ställdes i studien: -Vilka förekomster av teknik och genusstereotyper återfinns i lätt att läsa-böcker? -Vilka föreställningar kring teknik och genusstereotyper har lärare och bibliotekarier? -Hur resonerar lärare och bibliotekarier kring teknikämnet och skönlitteratur och kombinationen av dessa? Genom Mitchams definition av teknik analyserades skönlitterära böcker skrivna för nybörjarläsare, och en tematisk analys genomfördes av intervjuer av lärare och bibliotekarier. Analysen visade att det förekom genusstereotyper kring teknik i lätt att läsa-böcker och att det fanns normkritiska böcker med tekniskt innehåll. Analysen av intervjuerna visade bland annat att lärare inte använde skönlitteratur i teknikundervisningen på grund av tidsbrist men att bibliotekarier gärna skulle hjälpa lärare hitta dessa böcker. Studiens resultat visade en ökande medvetenhet om att fler böcker behövs som inte behandlar teknik genusstereotypt. Studiens slutsats visade att tekniska genusstereotyper som förekommer i lätt att läsa-böcker riskerar stå oemotsagda och möjligheterna som finns med normkritiska böcker med tekniskt innehåll går förlorade när lärare inte hinner efterfråga bibliotekariernas kunskap.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar ämnet marknadisering i platsannonsernas kravspecifikation för bibliotekarier till folkbiblioteken. De metoder som har används är tematisk analys av platsannonsernas innehåll för år 2020 samt 2000 och kritisk diskursanalys med utgångpunkt i den tematiska analysen samt intervjuer som gjorts på e-mail med bibliotekschefer på folkbibliotek. Det uppsatsens resultat har påvisat är marknadisering inom tre områden när det gäller platsannonsernas kravspecifikation för bibliotekarier till folkbiblioteken, 1. marknadisering av känslor, i form av empati, trygghet samt servicevänlighet, 2. marknadisering av språk, i form av engelska samt övriga språk samt 3. marknadisering av kunskap, i form av akademisk examen. Vidare har serviceaspekten tagit allt större plats från år 2000 och framåt i platsannonsernas kravspecifikation i kombination med att arbetsköparnas kravlista för arbetarna blivit längre samt en mer uttalad självklarhet att arbetarna bör ha vissa personliga egenskaper och kunskaper.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how Swedish public libraries work with LGBTQ-subjects and issues, map out thoughts and attitudes of librarians in these libraries regarding specific LGBTQ shelves, also known as rainbow shelves, as well as examine how many libraries use these rainbow shelves. The study was conducted through an online survey which was sent to 428 Swedish public and integrated school libraries, and the results were analyzed using thematic analysis against a theoretical framework of queer theory. The results showed that a small majority of public libraries have chosen not to implement rainbow shelves, with many finding them excluding and discriminating with risks of outing LGBTQ-persons. Those with shelves found them to be easier to use for personnel and users, and was a powerful tool to show inclusivity toward the LBGTQ-community. Author talks, exhibits, book tips, reading lists and book clubs were the most common ways of working with the subject regardless of whether the library had rainbow shelves or not. Those with rainbow shelves were however more likely to label their LGBTQ materials, while the majority of those without the shelves didn’t label them at all, and if they did, they did so through the subject headings. The study also showed that the library staff is just as important as the library’s policies when it comes to furthering the development on social justice and LGBTQ-issues. The findings of this study show that discussions about LGBTQ-issues are prevalent public libraries and that through those the library can keep its legacy of social change alive.

Denna kandidatuppsats har som syfte att undersöka hur arbetet med icke-normativ litteratur i bibliotek ser ut och hur begreppet icke-normativ litteratur tolkas av bibliotekarier mot en bakgrund av medieplanering. Detta besvarades med hjälp av de tre forskningsfrågorna: Hur arbetar bibliotekarier med icke-normativ litteratur på bibliotek och hur kan man koppla detta till medieplanering? Vilka utmaningar finns för bibliotekarier när de arbetar med icke-normativ litteratur? Hur ser bibliotekariers tolkning av icke-normativ litteratur ut? Studiens empiriska data samlades in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fem bibliotekarier. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades genom en tematisk analys, där tre teman identifierades: Normer och det normbrytande arbetet; det personliga engagemanget; samarbete. Studiens resultat visade att bibliotekarierna arbetar med normer och normbrytande genom att lyfta fram litteratur som ses som icke-normativ. Det oftast förekommande exemplet var hbtq, men exempel som serier och mångspråk förekom också. Arbetet med denna litteratur genomförs med personligt engagemang från bibliotekariernas sida, eftersom de utan formellt ansvar ändå engagerade sig i litteraturen. De var dock inte ensamma i sitt arbete med denna litteratur, utan samarbetade med exempelvis både kollegor på biblioteket och på andra bibliotek. Arbetet och samarbetet i enlighet med aspekter från Quicks (2021) tre typer av medieplaner. Slutsatsen som kom fram var att respondenternas arbete med den icke-normativa litteraturen främst tycks ha aspekter från medieplantypen kommuninvånarnas behov. Begreppet icke-normativ litteratur tolkades bland annat som hbtq-litteratur, men även som andra litteraturkategorier av bibliotekarierna som deltog i studien.

The aim of the thesis is to examine images and portrayals of librarians in Swedish daily newspapers as well as what tasks librarians are described performing. A lack of studies focusing on the portrayal of librarians in news media has been observed. An understanding of the image of librarians shown to the public could contribute to the possibility of changing the view of librarians and their work, as well as improve the service offered by libraries. The study is based on 58 articles published in three of the most circulated daily newspapers in Sweden during 2022: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The study is limited to articles published in 2022. Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffes’ discourse theory is used as theory and method. Three discourses are identified, a discourse about librarians as unappealing, a discourse about librarians as unassuming and a literary discourse. The study concludes portrayals of librarians in the articles were mostly positive or neutral. Literature was often described as being a part of tasks performed by librarians and the profession was found to still be regarded as a profession mainly consisting of women, although historic portrayals solely consisted of male librarians.