The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the discourses about Malmö public library that can be identified in several documents published by the library, articles, and various WebPages. Furthermore, our intention is to study the relation between the library’s identity, image and profile. The questions posed in the study are: Which identity discourses are Malmö public library giving expression for? What kind of conflicts between these discourses can we find? How is the identity, image and profile of the library in relation to one another? How does Malmö public library profile and market itself as a non-profit organization? Our theoretical and methodological building ground is in the discourse analytical field, with Enesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s theories about discourse and society, as a starting-point. The method used is discourse analysis. The results of the analysis is that the library is influenced by two major discourses, the educational/informational discourse, which can be characterized by the concepts high culture, reading, books, adult education, tradition, nostalgia, production. The other major discourse is the joy/experience discourse which can be characterized by the concepts popular culture, new medias, experiences, renewal, future, consumption. Furthermore, our result implies that these two discourses operate in different levels within the organization. The educational/informational is more frequently seen in documents of a very broad and general function, hence the joy/experience discourse is observed on a more concrete level of the organization. This led us to the conclusion that a gap between identity, profile and image existed. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon “Living library”, where people are lent out instead of books. First it is looked into what the Living library means to the person who is borrowing a living book and what it means to the living book itself. Than the Living library is put in a public library context. This is done through a case study of the city library of Helsingborg and the city library of Malmö. The theoretical framework consists of an analysis model of the public library constructed by Andersson and Skot-Hansen. Interviews are conducted in order to se what the Living library means to the borrower and to the living book. Text analysis is done in order to see if the intention of the Living library can be a part of the public library activity and the public library’s role in the society. The result indicates that the Living library has several meanings to the borrower and the living book. This in turn can be related to the public library as a centre of knowledge, a centre of culture and a social centre according to Andersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s analysis model. It can also be assumed that the living library gives opportunities to sense making participation. The intention of the Living library is to struggle against prejudice. This is done through knowledge, which can be related to the public library as a center of knowledge according to Andersson’s and Skot Hansen’s analysis model. The Living library can also be a part of the public library’s democratic role in the society because of their common interest in human rights. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the quality notions used by the library personnel responsible for the video game department at Malmo City Library. Furthermore, the thesis aims to assess how these notions of quality relate to properties of the actual collection of video games. The empirical results are based on interviews with the responsible library personnel. The result is then analyzed by an interpretation of Carl Gustav Johannsen’s library adapted, theory-based, model of quality definitions. In order to assess relevant properties of the video game collection, we performed a categorization according to the genre-based framework of Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams and, to a lesser extent, the work on video game genres by Mark J. P. Wolf. The results indicate that Johannsen’s proposed perspectives on quality correspond well to the views expressed by the interviewed personnel. However, the properties of the video game catalogue imply a collection lacking in multitude, in many ways identical to the current ratio of the commercial market. The thesis argues that the cause of this discrepancy lies partly in a lack of documentation and guidelines concerning on what grounds the video games should be acquired. A more detailed policy concerning ways of implementing the available perspectives on quality into the routines of acquiring the actual collection could perhaps identify problems and remedy the situation indicated by the thesis. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the discourses aboutthe future of Malmö City Library expressed by the chief librariansSven Nilsson and Elsebeth Tank. Furthermore, our intention is tostudy the relation between the two. The questions posed in thestudy are: how does chief librarian Sven Nilsson express the futureof Malmö public library between 1989-1997? How does chieflibrarian Elsebeth Tank express the future of Malmö City Librarybetween 2008-2010? How does Sven Nilsson’s and ElsebethTank’s thoughts and visions of the future correlate?Our theoretical and methodical building ground is in the discourseanalytical field, with Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’stheories about discourse and society, as startingpoint. The method used is discourse analysis.The results of the analysis gave us four different discourses per chief librarian. The result of Sven Nilsson reveals: The qualified personal discourse, The well supplied media discourse, The discourse of the self educated user and The discourse of the social room. The result of Elsebeth Tank reveals: The discourse of the innovative personal, The discourse of the edited media collection, The discourse of the interactive user and The discourse of the library without walls. We also found connections between the chief librarian’s visions about the future. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Har ni någon bra kärleksroman? : en studie av indexering av skönlitteratur vid stadsbiblioteken i Malmö och Mölndal. Have you got a good love story? : a study of fiction indexing at the public libraries of Malmö and Mölndal.The thesis analyses interviews with users of two Swedish public libraries to find aspectsof fiction important to users and consequently to be considered when indexing fiction.Descriptions of a novel by 50 users at each library are compared to the index terms usedfor these novels. For the analysis, the authors propose a model of their own based onAnnelise Mark Pejtesen's AMP system for fiction indexing. The authors find that usersprefer to mention concrete aspects like actors, time, geographic location and genre.Malmö did not use genres as indexing terms. Otherwise the indexing terms of bothlibraries usually concerned the same aspects.

This bachelor thesis explores what has been said about The Darling Library-project on The City Library of Malmö between 2009-2012. In 2009 The City Library of Malmö came up with a new strategic plan on how to further develop the organization of The City Library called The Darling Library - your life, your dreams, your library. This led to a debate on what the purpose of The City Library of Malmö should be. Should the library be primary about books and literature or should the library act as a meeting place in our multicultural society?This thesis examines different conceptions people have about The City Library of Malmö in newspaper articles published between 2009-2012. To analyze the empirical material, discourse analysis developed by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe have been used, along with a model developed by Åse Hedemark. The findings shows three different discourses: “The traditional discourse”, where books and literature is the core of the library, “The discourse of the future” where the physical library should work as a meeting place filled with activities and experiences, and “The mix discourse” where the library is a mix of these two. The discourses show a complex and varied image and there is a slight ambiguity about what the purpose The City Library of Malmö should be.

In 2016 a new space for younger children opened at Malmö public library called Kanini. Kanini builds on a vision of the future library for children where flexibility, offers of new experiences and children’s participation will characterize the library space and activities. As some of the children are very young, a large group users are adults. The aim of this master’s study is to examine a) how adults use the new children’s library in relation to the intentions expressed in Kanini’s steering documents and, b) adult conceptions of Kanini. In an ethnographic approach participant observations have been carried out at Kanini as well as an analysis of Kanini’s steering documents. The theoretical framework is based on the Four Space Model constructed by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Ramsussen and Dorte Skot-Hansen, together with a model of children’s participation developed by Barbro Johansson and Frances Hultgren as well as the concept of mothering developed by Sara Ruddick. The analysis of the material shows that adults in the main use Kanini as intended according to the documentation i.e. in new and creative ways. At the same time, adults tend to have traditional ideas of what a children’s library is and how to use it. There would seem to be a contradiction in perceptions of the children’s library and how it is actually used. Conclusions include that the vision of the future children’s library may take some time to replace traditional expectations.

This is a two years master’s thesis that studies five libraries. The purpose with the paper was to look at a specific material and study how it expresses itself around the architecture of the buildings, an if the descriptions were different depending on the library, public library or university library.  The conclusion is that the ways of describing the library buildings have varied; depending on one part time and one part evolution. The way library buildings look and have been used has changed over time also, and as well how people perceive and talk, or in this case write about them.