Hush! – An analyses of the public debate regarding silence in libraries. This essay is based on the perception of a change in the library soundscape. Our purpose is to identify the prevailing discourses in the public debate regarding silence in libraries. To achieve this, we posed three questions. What part does silence play in the public debate about silence in the libraries? What are the discourses that can be identified in this debate?  What is the debater’s opinion of the ambition of the library to become a third space? To answer these questions, we analysed seventeen articles from the Swedish news, by applying a discourse analytic model - based on a model created for this context by Åse Hedemark. The articles were written between 2006 and 2018 and we chose this timeframe due to the fact that the technological development of cellular phones etc, thrived in this period.The results show that there is a discord between the libraries and the participants in the public debate and that a number of discourses have been identified. We have identified the main issue of the debate as the transcendence of the library from a silent temple full of books, to an open space for informal encounters and conversations.

The aim of this thesis is to deepen our knowledge about the value of the Swedish Public Library as expressed in the local press during the corona pandemic. The empirical material consists of 54 articles published in December 2020 and January 2021. Debates and discourses regarding the public library are analyzed with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory and Åse Hedemarks formulated library discourses. The study finds that Hedemarks discourses all appear to various extent. The book discourse and the community centre discourses are more visible yet the information mediation discourse is also notable. The complexity of the Public Library is further highlighed during a period when access to the physical library space is limited. The meeting place is a common way to describe the library and a function that, at the time of the study, was unavalible. The findings show that the concept is not clearly defined or fixed in one specific discourse and therefore concludes that the Public Library is far more than a meeting place and serves many purposes.

The aim of this Master thesis is to describe why and how public librariesuse the social networks Facebook and Twitter. The focus is to study whatbrought about their use, how the work is carried out, ideas and objectivesbehind the use and what libraries actually convey on the networks. Themethodology is twofold: semi-structured interviews with responsiblepersonnel at four Swedish public libraries, and an ethnographic contentanalysis of four months of the libraries' status updates and tweets onFacebook and Twitter. The theoretical framework consists of a model forthe roles of the public library in society, and of discourses about thepublic library in media.Results indicate that social networks are used to market, make accessibleand inform of the library's resources and services. Furthermore, networksare used to communicate/interact with followers and to inspire people toread. We also detect a tutoring trait. Libraries also view social networksas a meeting place. What libraries do on the networks can be seen as anonline interpretation of traditional library goals. All four spaces from themodel for the new library – Inspiration, Learning, Meeting andPerformative – were represented in the objectives expressed in theinterviews. In what is conveyed on the networks focus lay on Inspirationand Meeting. Social networks also act as a place to market the physicallibrary. From a discourse perspective the study suggests that librariesexpress disidentification and demonstrate ability to remain open both todifferent media formats and different methods for library servicesdelivery. / Program: Bibliotekarie