It is said that libraries are the cornerstones of democracy.What is then the democratic mandate, and how is itperceived by the library staff? That's what I examine in thismaster's thesis. I’ve made 14 phone interviews with librarystaff, from assistants to managers, and examined what theirdaily work routine looks like and what they think belongs tothe democratic mandate. I found that all agree that there is ademocratic mandate, but it is not clearly stated in anydocument.I found seven areas that my respondents saw as part of themandate; availability, diversity, children and young people,equality, public education, free of law and cultural history.These are not sharply defined, but can often move into oneanother. The everyday work of the library is more of a socialwork than you might think. The digital divide means that thelibrary staff will largely be helping with things like orderingstuff over the Internet, get email accounts, helping people tolearn social media, helping immigrants and refugees to learnhow Swedish society works and so on.The problems experienced with the democratic mandatewere mainly economic. Downsizing means that the staffdoes not have time and opportunity to help as much as theywant. The fact that the democratic mandate is not so clearlystated was also experienced as a problem. A clearly definedmandate would not only draw guidelines for labor, but alsoshow outward a little better what you actually do at thelibraries, more than lend books. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of my bachelor thesis is to create an understanding of how public library employees express the public libraries´ assignments and tasks. To help fulfill the purpose, I have assumed the following issues • What do the study's public library employees think that the public library's mission in society should or should not be? • To what extent does the study's public library staff perform daily tasks that are described as being outside the remit of the public libraries? • According to the study´s public library staff, how clear are the public libraries´ guidelines when it comes to which tasks the staff should perform and which ones to say no to? • Are there any differences between how public library staff's existing service titles look at the public libraries' assignments and tasks? If so, what do these differences look like? The method I have used is quantitative as I sent out a web survey to all main libraries in Sweden's 290 municipalities. The results were analyzed using previous research and the Four spaces model, which through its four spaces can help to analyze how the library activities work. The result shows that respondents in the web survey want tasks such as information and knowledge mediation, democracy and reading promotion to be included in the assignment. On the other hand, they think that tasks such as data printing, banking affairs and public affairs do not belong to the assignment. According to the respondents, the guidelines regarding which tasks the employees should say no to are unclear.