More and more libraries nowadays interact more closely within their regions. Therefore, it is interesting to examine how a collaboration between libraries can contribute to development of the libraries. This study is about The Göta Libraries, a partnership consisting of public libraries in 14 municipalities, the thirteen municipalities in Östergötland and Tranås, and the county library in Östergötland. The study has examined the types of innovation the library collaboration can contribute to the libraries, the challenges that faces the Göta Libraries and what factors are important for the cooperation to work in a rewarding way. To find out this four interviews were conducted with library staff. Jennifer Rowleys theory on collaborative innovation has been applied to the study. The study results show that there has been different types of innovations for the libraries as a result of the Göta Libraries development. The main benefits are that libraries aquired much more reources in their collections when they coordinated their catalogues, which entails that they can give a better service to their users. The challenges that libraries were faced with was that it can take time to develop common rules and that too much bureaucracy can prevent people from trying out new things. As for the factors for a collaboration to be successful and rewarding it is of major importance that everyone contributes to the collaboration and that everyone follows the common rules.

The aim of this thesis is to study the reading habits of Swedish librarians visualized by librarians from Götabiblioteken – a collaboration of 14 public libraries in mid-Sweden – focusing on the reading done on their spare time, even if work-related. We started with a survey sent out to 74 librarians in October 2013, answered by 56, and followed up by interviewing 7 of them in November.We tried to answer these questions:To what extent does the working librarians read on their spare time compared to before they started working?What literature do they read, now compared to before they started working?To what extent does their perception of what they should have read affect their private reading?In what way does a librarian in the beginning of their career differ in reading habits from the reading habits of a librarian with many years in the profession?The result of our study shows that most of the librarians read as much or more than before they started to work. They are more selective in their choice of literature and are affected by their work in it in different ways. Their perception of what is needed affect their reading habits, but this seems to come from themselves and not from other librarians or the public. The answer to our last question is inconclusive, but it seems like the pressure lifts with experience.Librarians in this study put a lot of their free time into their work, in the form of reading. / Program: Bibliotekarie