The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how medical libraries use user studies and their results to develop their activities, as well as how they view their opportunities to clear the barriers users in user studies find that they have in their information seeking. The method used in the study is semi-structured interviews with five chief librarians at five different medical libraries in Sweden. The empirical data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The theory used for analysing the results is Vedung's five models of use of evaluation: instrumental use, enlightenment use, legitimizing use, tactical use and ritual use. The result shows that medical libraries both take part in the results of user studies conducted at national level and own user studies. The respondents state that user studies are important and that they fill a function of finding out what users think about their activities. The results of user studies are mainly used as enlightenment, but also instrumental and legitimizing. The opportunities to clear barriers in the users' information seeking are many, but the most suggested is through marketing efforts. The conclusion is that user studies very well can be seen as a tool for developing the activities of medical libraries. If one uses the results of user studies in the instrumental, enlightening and legitimizing way that Vedung recommends and which the librarians in the study do in most cases, they can be very useful.

This thesis is about medical libraries that, foremost, serve the healthcare personnel in their evidence-based practices. The visibility aspect of these types of libraries is explored, both through a librarian’s and a user’s perspective. A theory of invisible information work is applied to understand why and how visibility affects the libraries and the librarians’ work. The visibility is also explored through a user perspective, where theories of user barriers are applied to a group of users with remote access to the medical library. The data is derived from semi-structured interviews with medical librarians, clinical librarians, and a group of healthcare personnel, and analyzed thematically through the theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, the medical library as a place is explored and discussed, which deepens the analysis and understanding of the medical libraries’ impact on the healthcare personnel and their evidence-based practices, as well as the visibility and role of the medical library. The conclusion is that the library and its services, to a large extent, are invisible to the user group, and several barriers to the users’ library access and use are detected and exemplified in the thesis. Another conclusion is that medical librarians have a range of strategies to counter the invisibility, but factors such as resources and being part of a healthcare organization affect the possibility of implementing these strategies.