The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to attain an understanding of the adoption and development of games and transmedia storytelling in Swedish public libraries. We studied the extent, the purposes and the way in which Swedish public libraries have included games and transmedia storytelling into their collections and programs. In order to fulfill the aim of the study a survey study was conducted. The survey was distributed to one public library in every Swedish municipality. The empirical material was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as the SCOT-model. Transmedia storytelling proved to be a difficult concept to study, therefore we focused mainly on its connection to gaming programs. The findings show that transmedial gaming programs are less common than regular gaming programs, and among these eight different types of programs were identified. Concerning the purposes for these different types of programs nine distinct categories were identified, which showed that the public libraries had diverse views regarding games and transmedial work with games in libraries. Through an analysis using the SCOT-model we reached the conclusion that the studied libraries’ adoption of games and transmedial work with games is in its early stages and that there are still problems to be solved before a consensus can be reached.

Creative spaces, or makerspaces, is an emerging and global phenomenon in libraries. The aim of this study is to examine the objectives that underlie the creative spaces in Australia, expressed by library professionals, as well as the purposes they fulfil in the library context. The material is derived from seven in-depth interviews with staff working with creative spaces at three public and one state library. Additionally, one observation was conducted in the creative space at each of these libraries. “The four spaces model”, created by Danish researchers Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot-Hansen, comprises the study's theoretical framework. According to the model, the library's objective is to support the goals: experience, involvement, empowerment and innovation. The library spaces, in which the goals should be supported, are the inspiration space, the learning space, the meeting space and the performative space. The study shows that the most distinct objectives of the creative spaces are experience and empowerment. Involvement and innovation are also present, but not as prominent. Further, the study shows that the purposes fulfilled by the creative spaces places them within the learning space and the meeting space, and to some degree in the inspiration space and the performative space. Findings reveal that creative spaces support STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and maths) learning and digital literacy through both collaborative and individual learning. The learning takes place in informal settings where play is a significant factor. The creative spaces function as “high-intensive” meeting places for the local community, and the library professionals highlight the importance of the social aspects of the creative spaces. This is a two years' master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This thesis examines library managers' attitude to the composition of the library workforce and their perceived resources and power to promote a library workforce which better represents the community in which it operates. What do the managers consider causes this composition and what changes do they find possible to implement in the future. The method used for collecting the material was e-mail and telephone interviews. The material is analyzed mainly through Taylor Cox' theories about the multicultural organization in which Cox demonstrates the positive impact that cultural heterogeneity has at a workplace by creating non-discriminatory effective organizations in which people from all different socio-cultural backgrounds are included. Some intersectional theory and related research also form the basis for the analysis. The results show that managers are very much aware of the problem of an overly homogeneous library workforce. They express that diversity needs to increase in all public institutions for it to take place in a library context. They also believe that the most limiting factor of the ability to conduct successful diversity efforts is a lack of resources, time and budget. There is a widespread perception among the managers that a change in recruitment strategies must be implemented in order to overcome the homogeneity. The thesis further highlights a couple of managers' lack of sufficient diversity knowledge. Without the relevant knowledge among managers, one can not expect diversity strategies to be formulated adequately or implemented satisfactorily. Although the managers claim an eagerness to make a change, there is a lack of practical suggestions on which to act in their responses. However, it is not solely in the library managers' hands to improve the current situation, it requires everyone with influence on this issue to make it prioritized. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how library employees view and work with UX or User Experience. It also examines how they view library users, the library and their own professional roles and how these views are connected with the concepts of documentality, legitimacy and identity. The concept of power is also used. The study was carried out thorough a series of ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with employees at Karolinska Institutet University Library and Linköping University Library and is based on a social constructivist perspective. The results show that UX is viewed as a mindset where one tries to look at the library from the users’ perspectives and adapt the library after their needs. This was seen as a new perspective where the library aims to stand in the users’ shoes. Through the use of methods like interviews, observations and usability tests the informants try to understand their users and their needs. However, there was a strong emphasis on balancing the users’ wishes with the aims and conditions of the library which indicate a strong internal legitimacy. It also shows that UX does not indicate a loss of power in the informants’ minds. The study shows that an emphasis on the users’ perspective can also be linked to the core of librarianship further strengthening the internal legitimacy. The results also show that arguments can be made for the importance of both constitutive and performative documentality in academic libraries today. Among the informants there was a strong emphasis on a communicatively oriented professional identity with its focus om dialogue and cooperation with library users. In conclusion, the study shows that UX can be viewed as a way for academic libraries to cope with the many changes the last decades have brought and continue to be relevant in years to come. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how interested the library sector is in digitalization. In an attempt to study this, I have studied the articles in Biblioteksbladet from 2012–2016. My starting point was that digitalization affects the Swedish libraries and that the subject therefore would have a prominent role in the library magazine. The aim of this thesis is also to generate knowledge about how digitalization affects the retail sector and the library sector to visualize similarities and differences between how operators from private and public sector are affected. Three text analytical surveys were conducted: a survey inspired by quantitative content analysis, a survey inspired by qualitative content analysis and a qualitative comparative survey. The agenda-setting theory was used as an analytic tool to analyze the interest in digitalization. Theories from the business field and previous research were used in order to compare how digitalization affects the retail sector and the library sector. The results of this thesis show that about eight per cent of the articles in the magazine from 2012–2016 is about digitalization. The subject is mentioned in all of the studied magazines except one. This shows that digitalization is treated to a considerable extent in Biblioteksbladet, which is in line with my hypothesis. My study also shows that digitalization is presented as a challenge to the libraries in the majority of the articles. This means that digitalization tends to be evaluated negatively in the material. It proved to be difficult to draw clear conclusions about the library sector’s interest in digitalization using these methods. The interest that appears in Biblioteksbladet doesn’t necessarily reflect the rest of the library sector’s interest. Another result is that there are several similarities between how digitalization affects the retail sector and the library sector. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This thesis examines how school libraries and academic libraries work with certain aspects of academic literacy in order to prepare pupils for higher education. The starting point of the thesis is the proposal for a new national strategy for Swedish libraries, published in March 2019, where educational libraries are presented as a coherent chain. The aim with the thesis is to find out whether there is a gap between upper secondary school libraries and academic libraries, in how they work with academic preparation. The purpose is to map the work already executed in the area and how the libraries’ mission has been stated. Data is collected in two web surveys: one sent out to staff at upper secondary school libraries and one to staff at academic libraries. The respondents answered questions about their current work and how the mission is perceived. The scientific method used is influenced by on-going evaluation. To define preparation areas, theory about academic literacy is applied.   To define the mission of educational libraries related laws, documents and other relevant information has been analysed. Responses from  the surveys help answering questions about executed work, perception of mission and experiences of a possible knowledge gap.   In documents related to statements of the libraries’ mission it is clear that school libraries play a part in helping schools reach common goals such as academic preparation. Academic libraries have less of pedagogical missions stated for them but out of tradition both libraries already work pedagogically with academic literacy. A gap could be surmised when staff at the school libraries say they work with a specific area of literacy and staff at academic libraries perceive new students to have insufficient knowledge in the same area. The thesis concludes with suggestions to improve the libraries’ work with college preparation. On a national and municipal level there is a need for a more clearly defined mission to assure equivalence for all pupils. Schools are suggested to develop business plans on their own to adapt the national and municipal mission statements to local conditions. Academic libraries are suggested to start cooperating with upper secondary schools. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine how two Swedish libraries approach library tourism. Library tourism is a growing phenomenon seen in libraries across the world. The case study has been made on the National Library of Sweden and Stockholm Public Library. The study was conducted through qualitative measures in which methodological techniques have been used, such as interviews and analysis of relevant documents from an organizational perspective. The study aims to determine how two libraries in Stockholm are used as tourist attractions and how the personnel perceive their workplace as being a tourist attraction. The analysis is based on Foucault’s theories primarily addressing the relationship between power and knowledge and the theories of economic, social, environmental, and cultural implications of tourist-related services by both John Urry and Jonas Larsen as well as the authors So-Min Cheong and Marc L Miller. The study shows that neither of the two examined libraries has special staff for dealing with tourists, nor guidelines for this activity. The study also shows that libraries can be viewed as important rising cultural tourist attractions during the last years. Having an increasing number of tourists has been disturbing for the locals and those employed at the libraries. Both libraries’ primary focus is being an indispensable part of community life as promoter of literacy, provider of a wide range of reading material for all ages and wide-ranging loan services based on systems of branch libraries. This study suggests that both libraries have a similar approach to tourism, but also that they could be more involved in the process in order to make tourism available on their own terms. Disclaimer: This subject was decided/chosen in November 2019 before the outbreak of Covid-19 which made future tourism development more uncertain. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.