This bachelor thesis examines librarians view on the work with cultural activities at public libraries; what they consider the purpose of this work to be, what challenges they face and what competences they need. This is important because the opinions about what the public library’s role is today vary and there is an ongoing discussion on the subject in the field of library and information science, as well as in the society. This is explored through interviews with eight librarians. The interview results are analysed with the concepts of cross-pressure and political legitimacy as described by Kann-Christensen and Pors (2004, s. 330-331). The findings presented in this paper include that the librarians wish to keep up with developments in the society when they develop the public libraries. The librarians also see their work as important and legitimate since the public libraries contribute to important values in the society described by the law.

Les services aux usagers des bibliothèques représentent un sujet fondamental en bibliothéconomie. Or, les usagers sont un groupe hétérogène à qui l’on doit offrir les mêmes services ou, à tout le moins, la possibilité d’obtenir des services répondant à leurs besoins en matière d’adaptation des lieux et des services. Malheureusement, les bibliothèques publiques ont parfois du mal à rendre un service adapté adéquat et les personnes concernées connaissent souvent mal les services dont elles pourraient bénéficier. Pourtant, les personnes handicapées font partie intégrante des usagers et leur présence augmente, notamment à cause du vieillissement de la population et d’une meilleure capacité d’établir des diagnostics. Notons que ces citoyens revendiquent de plus en plus leur autonomie et le fait de pouvoir profiter des mêmes services que le reste de la population. Ceci est d’autant plus vrai depuis l’apparition d’aides techniques et des outils technologiques tels les ordinateurs, les tablettes, les logiciels, etc. qui leur permettent de vivre leur vie à part entière. Aussi, les bibliothèques et leurs gestionnaires doivent impérativement s’assurer que l’accueil de ces usagers « comme les autres », mais aux besoins particuliers, sera assuré convenablement. Puisqu’il manque d’études concernant les services offerts aux personnes handicapées dans les bibliothèques publiques du Québec, nous avons décidé de procéder à une enquête, par le biais d’un questionnaire électronique administré aux employés de bibliothèques dont les fonctions sont de participer aux services aux usagers. Les réponses obtenues ont permis de dresser un portrait de la situation actuelle en matière de services aux personnes adultes handicapées dans les bibliothèques publiques québécoises et d’avancer certaines recommandations. Les résultats devraient aider les responsables de bibliothèques à déterminer où et comment concentrer leurs efforts pour rendre leurs établissements plus accueillants pour les personnes ayant des incapacités. Plus précisément, les objectifs de la recherche étaient les suivants : 1. Recenser les services offerts par les bibliothèques publiques québécoises aux usagers adultes handicapés. 2. Recenser les éléments d’accessibilité présents dans les infrastructures des bibliothèques publiques québécoises. 3. Évaluer l’impact de certaines caractéristiques des bibliothèques sur l’offre de services aux usagers adultes handicapés et les éléments reliés à l’accessibilité. 4. Comparer les résultats des enquêtes précédentes (Bibliothèque nationale du Canada 1976 ; Bergeron 1987) pour mettre en évidence les recommandations qui ont été appliquées et celles qui ne l’ont pas été. / Services offered to library users are important to librarianship. However, users form an heterogeneous group and the same services should be offered or, at least, be made available to all members of the community. Unfortunately, public libraries sometimes are experiencing difficulties to provide adequate and adapted services to people have disabilities those, often, are not aware of the services they could benefit from. In addition, these individuals are often not aware pf the services that are offered to them. However, people with disabilities are part of the community and their number is increasing due to the aging of the population and better diagnostic capabilities. We should also mention that those people claim their autonomy more than before as well as the right to be able to enjoy the same services as the rest of the population. This has become even more true since the introduction of different technical and technological aids and services that allow them to live their lives to the fullest. For all these reasons, library managers must ensure that the reception of these users with special needs will be adequately insured, thus enabling them to become users “like the others”. As there is a lack of studies on the subject, we have decided to examine the situation through an electronic questionnaire sent to public library employees responsible for user services. The results collected have enabled us to draw a picture of the current state of disability services in public libraries in Quebec and to provide certain recommendations. The results should help library managers to establish where and how to focus their efforts to make their institutions more welcoming to this category of users. Specifically, the research objectives were: 1. Identify services offered by public libraries in Quebec to adult users with disabilities. 2. Identify current accessibility elements present in Quebec public libraries’ infrastructure. 3. Avaluate the impact of the presence or absence of accessibility measures on the supply of services for adult users with disabilities and items related to accessibility. 4. Compare the results with those of previous surveys (Bibliothèque nationale du Canada 1976 ; Bergeron 1987) to highlight the recommendations that have been applied and those that have not.

The main aim of this master thesis was to find a key usage of decaying girls' and boys' hall of residence on the premises of the ZŠ and ISŠ school in Rousínov, which is located in a complex of terraced family houses, situated 100 metres south from the town square and to integrate it with both school organism and town surroundings. The former hall of residence will provide space for student community center with public library and a new building of a single-storey house with arcade connecting the sport, cultural, catering and relaxing facilities and also Tyršova and Za Záložnou streets. The roof of the new building will become a school square with the view of the main dominant feature of the town – St. Mary Magdalena church. The access to the square is possible both from the arcade and newly reconstructed buildings and also from the elementary school building. The streets of a whole complex will be decorated with greenery, student gardens for fruit trees and crops and with a parking space for the visitors of library and other public places.

Wer liest, gewinnt immer – das ist bekanntlich eine Erkenntnis, der sich niemand verschließen kann, der einmal zum Buch gegriffen hat. Seit Ende 2004 macht die Quizveranstaltung für Schülerinnen und Schüler der fünften und sechsten Klassen aller Schulformen in vielen Bibliotheken Deutschlands halt. Initiiert wurde das Quiz durch eine Kooperation zur Leseförderung zwischen dem Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur e.V., dem Deutschen Bibliotheksverband e.V. und der Das Telefonbuch-Servicegesellschaft GmbH unter der Schirmherrschaft des Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend. Ziel aller Akteure ist es, Kindern außergewöhnliche Literatur nahe zu bringen.

More-opened hours is a fast-growing service at public libraries in Sweden. The aim of this thesis is to examine how this new operations impacts the profession. How are the attitudes of the emplyoees affected? What are the consequences for the daily work of librarians? How may more-opened hours transform the future of the profession? These questions will be adressed by examining public libraries and combined public- and school libraries in the north of Sweden. The theoretical point of departure consists of profession theory, in particular Andrew Abbott’s theories and the notion of ”jurisdiction”. The theoretical framework is supplemented by Anders Ørom’s ideal librarian identities. A mixed method of survey and interview is applied. The data from each approach is analyzed separately and subsequently pooled, by means of applied thematic analysis. The result of the study shows that a vast majority of the librarians hold a positive attitude toward more-opened hours. This is found to be closely related to a user-perspective. Overall, librarians’ work is not dramatically changed, but certain routine tasks like book handling and tidying have increased. A new librarian identity, the Attendant (Funktionären), is suggested for maintanance tasks surrounding the more-opened service. Such a developement risks limiting the librarian’s professional jurisdiction and lead to deprofessionalization. However, the more-opened service may also support professionalization by relocating resources and competence from self-service tasks to more visible and qualified work. Additionally, more-opened hours may generate new areas for professional expansion, such as Library on demand and the field of statistics. Lastly, the results tentatively suggest that more-opened hours might play a part in interprofessional competition and a strenghtening of borders to the school. In conclusion, the impacts are complex but they offer much potential. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

According to 2§ of the Swedish Library Act, libraries shall work towards the development of a democratic society by spreading knowledge and providing people with the possibility to form their own opinions (SFS, 2013:801). It’s a natural consequence that Sweden’s national minorities are not provided with the same amount of services as the majority community, however the extent of how much space the minorities ought to be given in public libraries is a relatively unexplored research topic. This thesis uses a normative and argumentative structure to argue that public libraries ought to be prioritized more in the promotion of language and cultural rights for the Sami minority in Sweden. All of the Sami languages are defined as endangered according to the UN organization UNESCO, which makes the promotion of them a relatively urgent issue if the languages are wished to be preserved. The theoretical framework consists of Will Kymlicka’s arguments about equality and cultural diversity as a justification for group-specific rights, as well as David’s Crystal’s discussion on how to efficiently avoid language death. The arguments focus both on the linguistic and cultural benefits of an increased promotion of Sami related services in public libraries. It also highlights, and tries to tackle, potential issues such as the experienced lack of published Sami literature in Sweden.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to explore how creative spaces in libraries function, their goals and how they affect the role of their host libraries by undertaking a qualitative multi-case study in three public libraries in Dublin Ireland .This uses the four spaces model as a theoretical framework in analysing the empirical data which was gathered from semi-structured interviews of librarians and an events planner in the spaces as well as a document analysis of related strategic documents. The results of the study show that creative spaces offer a way for libraries to attract more and diverse groupings of patrons to their service and primarily have a role as learning and inspirational spaces. They enable libraries in particular to help give equal access to STEM resources and encourage experience based learning in all age groups from young to old. Each space has an individual character and its content and role is dependent on the host library and can act as a force multiplier for the various goals and roles of the library itself.

Technological advancements and digital tools have radically changed the professional profile of public librarians and yet little has been researched about the practical influence these changes have had on the digital competences that the professionals need in their daily work. The goal of the present paper is to examine which digital competences are required of the modern public librarian. A mixed-method research approach was adopted, based on content analysis of job advertisements retrieved from a Swedish context and semi-structured interviews with five currently employed librarians. A conceptual model was developed to allow a triangulation of results based on such different datasets. Results showed that the concept of digital competences is still defined in diffuse terms, often subjective to individual interpretations and strongly affected by the library’s size and user population. In spite of this, the professionals working in the public library sector clearly demand a minimum standard of digital skills and knowledge in all digital competences to be established. Such standard is needed both to perform daily responsibilities linked to the professional role of the public librarian and to the vital task of catering to the users’ needs.

There are more and more expectations of research that it will be able to "solve" society's problems. Library and Information Science (LIS) is also expected to contribute. One of the current topics that has been important in LIS research in recent years is integration. For this reason, the aim of this thesis in Library and Information Science is to examine the role of library staff in strengthening the integration process for the target group of adult immigrants. The emphasis is on how relationships are created at interactions in public libraries and how libraries are used as an arena for integration. The theoretical framework is based in the integration model by Ager and Strang, their ten core domains of integration process, and Social Capital’s theory. The method used is qualitative interviews with 7 library staff members in seven public libraries in small to medium-sized cities in Sweden. The interviews were recorded, except one which was conducted via e-mail, and the content was analyzed using a thematic content analysis through the theoretical framework. The result of this study show the kind of interactions that occur which can affect society and the individual’s level of social inclusion. The result support the assertion that public libraries have an important role to play in strengthening the integration of immigrant groups into society. The thesis show that library staff are a strong resource when it comes to achieving social interactions, and that the relationships created at public libraries helps support integration.

Objective: To determine the value of a program instituted by an academic medical library to train public library workers across the State of Tennessee, US to deliver quality health information to patrons. Methods: Qualitative analysis including focus groups. Results: The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Medical Library used four three-hour classes developed by the US National Library of Medicine to train public library workers across the State of Tennessee over the last five years. All four classes were offered multiple times in the nine regions of the state public library system. Approximately 250 library workers received the Consumer Health Information Specialization designation from the US Medical Library Association for participating in 12 hours of training. The motivation behind this effort was reports that the first place people with a new diagnosis go for information is the public library. Conclusion: We wanted to look for evidence to see if there was value in this project in order to know whether to repeat it in the future or whether to promote it as a model to other geographical areas. A qualitative analysis of the results of the project will be presented at the conference.