This master's thesis studies Utländska biblioteket, a 19th century foreign literature subscription library in Karlskrona, Sweden. The aim of the thesis is to investigate Utländska biblioteket between 1835–1864. The material consists primarily of primary sources from the archive of Utländska biblioteket. The main primary sources are the library's accounts book, its minutes, and two book catalogs. Using analytical tools from Jürgen Habermas, feminist criticism of his ideas and from Pierre Bourdieu, as well as results from previous research on older library forms and female organization in the 19th century, the thesis answers questions relating to the library as a society, its members and its book collection. The investigation shows that Utländska biblioteket was a subscription library as well as a book circle. Based on its regulations, it should be viewed as a sort of public sphere, but in reality Utländska biblioteket was an exclusive group, consisting of a socially homogenous group of people who in large extent knew each other. Its members were in large part female and aristocratic. The reading of foreign literature and the focus on quality, can be viewed as an act of distinction. Utländska biblioteket was, compared to other similar libraries, unusual primarily because of its large female membership. This is in the thesis explained through the viewing of the library as a female organization, where the male members in part play a role as acting agents in the library's contact with for example book dealers. Also, the book collection shows proof of a certain female subject interest. Based on these facts, Utländska biblioteket can be viewed as a female counter public, where women created a space for themselves where they, through the literature and through the membership in a society, could reflect on their identities, as well as make claims on what a woman was and could do. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

The purpose of this thesis is to compile and analyze librarian Greta Renborg’s book propaganda in the Dalarna region of Sweden 1956–1958. The overall theoretical perspective is contextual, focusing on the concepts structure and actor. The actor perspective is further developed by an analysis of Renborg’s book propaganda through library researcher Jofrid Karner Smidt’s mediation roles: Critic and literature expert, Social anthropologist, Pedagogue, Marketer and Ordinary person. Source material includes archive documents, journal articles, newspaper articles and literature. Renborg’s own writing holds a special position in the material. The thesis’ results show that the conditions for carrying out book propaganda in Dalarna were good. Sweden was going through a rapid change in the 1950’s and the state library institution was expanding and willing to experiment. The civic society in Dalarna was strong. The region’s central librarian Tora Olsoni was a driving force behind the hiring of a book consultant. Greta Renborg had contacts high up in the library institution and was a well-known name among Swedish librarians. Source material indicate that she could plan and conduct the Dalarna project basically by her own, only supervised by her employer Dalarnas biblioteksförbund. Greta Renborg built up a large network of contacts and focused her propaganda on non-reading groups ac- cording to a state investigation in 1952, especially farmers, foresters and housewives. The source material shows that her book propaganda has features of all Jofrid Karner Smidt’s mediation roles. The medial reception was overwhelmingly positive and often focused on Renborg’s enthusiastic approach. Any statistical effects of the Dalarna Project have not been proven. This thesis shows that the Dalarna Project to a large extent depended on Greta Renborg as a person. This is the thesis’ most important result. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

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

This master’s thesis is a case study investigating the career and ideology of Virginia Carini Dainotti, a librarian working in twentieth-century Italy who played a significant role in Italian librarianship. This study has been carried out through textual analysis and is primarily based on the material written by Carini Dainotti herself, including both articles and monographs. These documents were extensively used to understand her contribution to the establishment of the American public library model in Italy. This master’s thesis finds that Virginia Carini Dainotti has played a significant role in the Italian library field. Her particular attention to the needs of young adults and adults, her openness to international experiences and her view of the public library as a socio-educational tool marked her out as an innovator compared to the 20th-century Italian state of the field.