The purpose of this paper is to study the ongoing discussion concerning e-books at Swedish public libraries. The e-booksituation has as of late gained a lot attention in the media. The main distributor of e-book in Sweden - Elib - is in the centreof this discussion and our goal has been to study the opinions and arguments that have been expressed within articles and blog postsconcerning the situation.We have analysed our articles and blog posts through a qualitative text analysis in order to find the main problems of the e-bookdiscussion and which arguments are used. We have also studied the effect Elib might have on the libraries' collection developmentaccording to the articles and blog posts.We found that the major issues within the e-book situation include Elib's price model - which is costly for the libraries - thewatermarking and the selection of books available to the libraries. It is also considered, according to the author's of our articles and blog posts, that the collections at the libraries are affected byElib's system since the choice of which books to include is given to the publishers, not the libraries or its users.The articles and blog posts agree that a change needs to occur for the e-books future survival at the public libraries. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This paper investigates the ongoing talks between the Swedish libraryassociation (Svensk Biblioteksförening) and the Swedish Publishers’Association (Svenska Förläggareföreningen) regarding a new payment modelfor e-book loans in Swedish public libraries. The current model allows an ebookto be lent an infinite number of times and for each loan the library paystwenty Swedish kronor to the supplier, Elib, which in turn passes half of thatsum on to the publicers.The reason for the talks is that both libraries and publishers have reason to bedispleased with the current model. For the libraries it has proven to be aneconomic challenge, for the already strained library economies, sincepayment is made directly by the individual library from the media budget.The publishers also have reasons to want a change of model since thecompensation they receive from the libraries is not enough for them tocontinue publishing e-books and making a profit. They argue that to protectthe commercial e-book market the principle of free loans has to be replacedby a model that introduces “friction” in the form of limitations on how manytimes a title can be loaned.This study is based on interviews with representatives from both sidesinvolved in the talks, along with a representative from Elib and a librarian.An analytical tool has been constructed by the author to aid in the process ofuncovering arguments and standpoints in the interviews. The analyticframework has been construed from standpoints in the e-book debate. Thestudy's major findings include that both sides have distinctive perspectives onthe e-book, one side sees it as a fast and effective way to supply people withliterature and information and the other as a commodity to be bought andsold on a market. The challenge is to find means of co-existing. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The increased popularity of e-books in the Swedish publiclibraries started a debate in newspapers and library journalsbecause of the increase in costs, which this popularity hadled to. The main subject of the debate was the businessmodel provided by the e-book vendor Elib, which accordingto some ruins the libraries financially. In this thesis, opinionarticles have been analyzed using a theoretical model ofcultural politics by the Danish Library and Informationscience researcher Dorthe Skot-Hansen. The results of thestudy showed that people from the library field, publishersand authors were the ones contributing to the debate. Theanalysis of the articles showed that the model of culturalpolitics which consists of four general motives: socialchange, education, economic growth and entertainment wasvisible in the articles. The motive of economic growth wasthe most dominant perspective in the articles, followed byeducation and social change. The arguments used in thearticles were different according to which part in the debateone had. Authors of articles from the library field were themost dominant part, using argumentations of the libraries asinsitutions contributing to social change, culturalexperiences and education. The perspective of economicgrowth was the most covered one in the articles, concerningthe economic situation for the libraries, the authors andpublishers rights to economic compensation for the lendingof e-books. The analysis of the articles also showed aconcern about the book markets and the libraries’ positionsin the digital society, a development which has lead to aninsecurity concerning the economics. / Program: Bibliotekarie