Introduction. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the means of control that a municipality has over privatized library services. Specifically what methods of evaluation it uses, and how it formulates its demands in contracts and other documents. The case study was the municipality of Nacka, Sweden. Method. All documents investigated in the thesis with information concerning the public libraries of Nacka kommun were gathered from the municipality's website and archive. Interviews were conducted with representatives of the two contractors currently in charge of operating the six library branches of the Nacka library system. Analysis. Document analysis was used to identify sections of text with relevant information. Taking into account the status and relationship of the source documents theses were arranged thematically according to a model of organizations proposed by Charles Perrow. The motive of the analysis was to identify the ends the municipality has in mind for the libraries and what means they propose to use to reach those ends. Perrow’s concept of bounded rationality was used to look for inconsistencies in the relationship between means and ends in the organizational structure. Insights gained from the interviews were used to corroborate the findings. Results. Instances of bounded rationality was found in the way the municipality specifies and evaluates the work of the external contractors. Further studies should take into account the interests of the contractors and how that affects the privately run public libraries. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.