The purpose of this thesis is to compare international ideal competencies for Special Collections librarianship to the possibility to acquire these competencies as a student of library education or as a professional librarian with the care of special collections in a public library in Sweden today. The questions posed are: How are international ideal competencies concerning special collections looked upon in Swedish public libraries? How can students or professional librarians today acquire competences necessary for the work at hand in special collections? Suggested in this thesis is to emphasize the importance of understanding that handling special collections demands other skills and belongs to other practices than ordinary work in a public library. The major discrepancy with international ideal competencies consists in the lack of ways for education in the field of special collections for both students and professional librarians in Sweden today.

The aim of my master’s thesis has been to examine the situation of the price lists in the National Library of Sweden, in Uppsala University Library and in the Nordiska Museet Library. The starting point was that the institutes have been operating within different institutional practices. These operational differences between the institutes have affected the collecting, the organizing and the accessibility to the information of the price lists. My master‘s thesis is based on Birger Hjørlands theories of domains and knowledge organization. The main sources of the information in the thesis are interviews conducted with informants within these three institutes. The findings of the study show that the main differences in how the institutes have been organizing the price lists, results from the different assignments the institutes have in collecting the material. Based upon the facts that have emerged in the interviews, some general and some specific problem areas have been highlighted. These problem areas have been discussed in the thesis and possible solutions in how to proceed have been presented.