The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis is twofold. Firstly it aims to make a contribution to the understanding of how five Swedish Diocesan libraries have carried out the digitizing of their rare book and manuscript collections. Problem areas related to this activity are also investigated. Secondly, it aims to examine the relative guidelines and standardization norms, which have been formulated on a national basis. The research questions posed are:Which problem areas connected to the digitizing activities carried out at the Diocesan libraries can be identified in the empirical material?Which possible discrepancies might be found comparing the digitizing activity at the Diocesan libraries and the guiding principles on a national level?In order to find answers to the research questions, interviews with six librarians at the Diocesan libraries were conducted. Furthermore, using the method of content analysis, the interviews, literature, previous research, reports and in-house documents were examined. The theoretical framework used is a triangular model formulated by the museologist, Ivo Maroević, indicating the relationship between the institutions of cultural heritage: archives, libraries and museums. The particularity of the collections of the Diocesan libraries places them in the middle of the triangle.The most important problem areas were found to be connected with: economical and personnel resources, outsourcing and open access, preservation, storage, and the national strategy for digitization. The major discrepancy with national recommendations consists in the differences of the digitization process at the Diocesan libraries, depending on whether it is related to a project or on demand. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this study is to take a closer look at the five municipal diocesan libraries of Sweden and their lack of national guidelines. The study focuses on the experiences of the staff, what their opinion is about the lack of guidelines, how it affects their work and what kind of impact they think a creation of national guidelines in the future could have on the library and their work. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with six librarians, or in one case a library assistant, during visits to each of the municipal diocese libraries. A qualitative contentanalysis, as described by Wildemuth (2009) was then applied to the results of the interviews. The results of the analysis show that there are six recurring themes. These themes are To increase visibility and accessability, The importance of networking, The lack of resources, To preserve or not exist, Believing in your circumstances while wanting to improve, as well as Regulatory documents and the Do It Yourself-culture. The findings of the study show that there is a strong Do It Yourself-culture among the Swedish municipal diocese libraries. The employees take the lack of national guidelines into their own hands and create substitutes, but show a clear interest in official national guidelines.