This Master’s thesis concerns the public librarian’s professional identity. The complexity of the mandates of the public librarian, and the public library, raises questions on how librarians understand their professional identities. The empirical material consists of qualitative in-depth interviews with librarians. Two theoretical approaches are used in the analysis of the material with a focus on the public librarians’ knowledge and professional role. The informants’ statements are categorised according to different models. The results reveal that the librarians express various attitudes, some of them contradictory, for instance, towards the users of the library. Some tensions characterise the professional identity of the public librarian, for example, between practical and theoretical orientations. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim for this bachelor thesis was to form a deeper understanding of librarians‟ occupation and professional identity and therefore we have examined library students‟ and educators‟ view on professional identity, competence and career possibilities. Our take on this was that there seems to be little interest in managerial positions and we asked ourselves why this is and if we could see a change in interest in the librarians to become. As our theoretical framework, we chose Andrew Abbott‟s, 'Theory of Profession'. The method chosen was qualitative interviews: two individual interviews with education officers and a focus group interview with students. The conclusions drawn were based upon literature and empirical material gathered from the interviews. The librarian identity and competence is a complex issue and has been much discussed since the early 1960‟s. Both education officers and students have had difficulties trying to express their views on librarian‟s professional identity in words. The students had shared the stereotypical picture of an old lady with glasses and a bun before the start of their education; but later had gladly reconceptualised. Previous research showed a fragmented identity among librarians and difficulties to unite in a distinct competence. Our study showed a similar result among our informants but they also shared a strong core of ideology, humanistic values, and a passion for information. The students may have become generalists in their profession, however, they were ambitious and were not afraid to lead. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Different educational and professional backgrounds play important roles in how school librarians prioritize activities in the school library. Whether the school librarian has a background as a teacher or as a librarian, they influence and apprehend the activities of the school library differently. The aim of this thesis is to find out how the school librarian looks at his/her commission. What shifts in priorities can be recognized depending on whether the librarian has training as a teacher or a librarian. This thesis also analyzes how the two different professional backgrounds justify their priorities in the school library. I have used Henri Tajfel’s theory of social identity as a theoretical frame work to analyze my data. My empirical data consists of four qualitative interviews and observations of award winning school librarians with different professional backgrounds; the librarians have all won the Swedish award ‘School Librarian of the Year’. The activities I observed during my field work are presented as categories in my study. I’ve used the American scholar David Loertscher’s taxonomy of school library activities to identify those categories. I then used a didactical approach to better understand the categorical data, asking the questions “What? How? And Why?” Some of my findings recognize differences between the two professional identities. A professional background in teaching tends to stress e.g. grading pupils reading abilities, whereas the trained librarian focuses more on reading for recreational purposes. My findings point out that explicit partisanship plays a major role concerning professional identity, which in the end reflects priorities in school library activities. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The point of departure for this thesis was an article written by Christer Hermansson (2008). He thinks that librarians, following the development of Library 2.0 and the change of public libraries, have strayed away from what he believes should be the focus of the library: Literature. The aim of this thesis is to study how librarians in six Swedish libraries perceive their occupational roles. How does the increased user control, which is seen as part of Library 2.0, affect the tasks of libraries and librarians? The material used in this study was acquired using a qualitative interview technique in which six librarians working in public libraries with experience of IT, mediation and purchase of literature partook. The interviews were analyzed by comparing the empirical material to theories of librarian models (Klasson 1991) respectively Community of practices (Sundin 2003). The results showed that there are different conceptions among the participating librarians regarding whether their occupation roles and the public library activity has changed/been affected by Library 2.0. Some librarians thought that the occupation role has changed, but not because of 2.0. Others meant that the core of the occupation role has not been changed; they use old working methods in new ways. It´s still too early to tell how the development of Library 2.0 will affect libraries and the tasks of librarians, the technology has not developed far enough yet in most Swedish public libraries.

This master thesis concerns the relationship the librarianhas to the libraries classification system. The system itselfis made by librarians for librarians and is only used bylibrarians. This raises the question of how the librariansrelate to their own system to create order. The empiricalmaterial consists of five in-depth interviews with librarians.Two theoretical approaches were used in the analysis of thematerial with one focus on the librarian’s professional rolland the other on the postmodern theories about humansneed for order. The results point towards that not alllibrarians see the classifications system as a part of theirown profession. Certain diversity can be seen between thelibrarians opinion in the mater of the classificationssystems importance in their professional role. Thelibrarians agree however that the order in the library musthowever be maintained. The librarians agree that as long asthere are needs of arranging the physical mediums of alibrary the classification system will remain. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to develop knowledge about how librarians experience their professional identity, argue for their competence and describe their profession based on their professional skills, tasks, and status. The method that is used to answer the questions of the study is semi-structured interviews with five public librarians. The theory used in this essay is Ørom’s six librarian identities plus Schreiber’s experience intermediate identity. Conclusions drawn by the study is that the library profession is multifaceted as the study’s informants showed expressions of several professional identities simultaneously. The width of different work tasks that emerged in the study also shows that the profession is diverse. Social skills and an ability to stay updated on new media and follow the news development are regarded as key skills. The profession's relatively low status is linked to perceptions of the society about the library profession. The informants in the study feel that it is important to encounter decision makers’/politicians’ perceptions of the library profession as they are the ones who have the power to influence the library organization. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The study is based on three Swedish novels published in 1945,1956 and 1964, and three Swedish novels published in 1998, 2008and 2009. The aim has been to investigate how librarians are portrayed in Swedish literature, as well as a comparison between the older and the newer literature. What librarian images are portrayed in the analyzed literature? Is the portrayal mostly positive, negative or neutral? Are there any clear differences in how librarians portrayed in newer and older Swedish fiction? If so, what are they? The method used has been qualitative content analysis where relevant paragraphs have been coded and divided them into categories of appearance, personality, and professional identity. The conclusion is that the librarian is often portrayed as an intellectual and somewhat high-strung bibliophile. There has been examples of librarian as colorless, middle-aged, old fashioned, nervous, sensitive, high-strung, neurotic and condescending to library visitors. Overall, the picture is quite negative. However, there are exceptions; two of the portrayed librarians have been portrayed as attractive and, for its time, modern. The fictional librarian is often portrayed as a person who feels a great need to try to get other people to read. There is no clear difference in how the librarians are portrayed in the new or old literature. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The thesis Att vara eller inte vara på rätt plats – Om statushierarkier bland skådespelare is a qualitative study, conducted by me, Therése Jirek, with the purpose of investigating the status hierarchies between actors educated at the public Swedish theater universities and actors educated at private/non public/other theater schools. The study also investigates how the hierarchies affect the work, social relations and dynamics between the actors. The study also looks at the professional pride and identity in relation to this.  The information was gathered using semi-structured interviews with six Swedish actors of different age groups and with different educational backgrounds. The theoretical framework with which the information was interpreted is the theories of the field and habitus by Pierre Bourdieu. The results and analysis are presented in three different parts (chapters): Part 1 – about production and reproduction of status, part 2 – about practices that preserve status and part 3 – about professional pride and identity. The study shows that the actors status is determined for the most part by his or her educational background and if and where he or she works. The status preserving practices are largely performed through silent agreements and self-regulatory behavior. The professional title is characterized by a strong sense of pride and is often rooted deep in the personal identity. / Uppsatsen Att vara eller inte vara på rätt plats – Om statushierarkier bland skådespelare är en kvalitativ studie utförd av mig, Therése Jirek, med syfte att undersöka de statusmässiga hierarkierna mellan skådespelare utbildade inom statlig svensk scenkonstutbildning, och skådespelare utbildade inom privat/ickestatlig/annan scenkonstutbildning. I studien undersöks också hur hierarkierna påverkar yrkesutövandet, de sociala relationerna och dynamiken kollegorna emellan. Vidare berör studien även skådespelarnas yrkesstolthet och identitet i relation till ovanstående. Informationen insamlades med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex svenska skådespelare i olika åldrar och med skiftande utbildningsbakgrund. Det teoretiska ramverk med hjälp av vilket resultaten har tolkats är Pierre Bourdieus teorier om fältet och habitus. Resultaten och analysen redovisas i tre olika delkapitel baserat på forskningssyftet: Del 1 – om produktion och reproduktion av status, del 2 – om statusbevarande praktiker och del 3 – om yrkesstolthet och identitet. Studien visar att skådespelarens status i största mån avgörs av huruvida hen har utbildats vid någon av teaterhögskolorna eller ej, samt om och vid vilken teater hen arbetar. De statusbevarande praktikerna sker till stor del genom tysta överenskommelser och självreglerande beteenden. Yrkestiteln är förknippad med en en stark yrkesstolthet och har ofta en solid förankring i den egna identiteten.

Syftet med studien var att synliggöra hur fritidsledarna ser på orosanmälningar genom att undersöka hur de konstruerar fritidsledaryrket och sin möjlighet att agera vid oro för en ungdom på fritidsgården. Nio fritidsledare intervjuades enskilt och materialet analyserades ur ett diskurspsykologiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att fritidsledarna konstruerar en omfattande yrkesroll som förebilder, relationsbyggare och stödjande vuxna med en kompensatorisk funktion. När oro för en ungdom uppstår är en orosanmälan inte aktuell i första hand eftersom intentionen att hjälpa ungdomen står i konflikt med vad fritidsledarna upplever blir utfallet av en orosanmälan. Förhållningssättet medför att de tar hänsyn till relationer och ungdomens familj. Fritidsledarnas konstruktioner av yrkesrollen visar att de har god potential att uppmärksamma ungdomar som far illa. Däremot upplevs fritidsledarrollen som omfattande vilket tillsammans med en misstro mot socialtjänsten utgör hinder för att anmäla. Kunskap om socialtjänstens arbetssätt, mer praktiknära riktlinjer kring anmälningsplikten och en tydligare samsyn kring yrkesuppdraget skulle därmed kunna utgöra ett stöd för orosanmälningar.

<p>Den här studien undersökte hur fyra missbruksbehandlare som haft ett eget missbruk konstruerar sin yrkesidentitet utifrån föreställningar om kompetens, makt, normalitet och avvikelse. Studien utgick från kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra sådana behandlare kring deras yrke i relation till de egna missbruks-erfarenheterna. Intervjuerna analyserades utifrån en symboliskt interaktionistisk och socialkonstruktivistisk referensram med hjälp av några vanliga begrepp inom diskursanalys. Resultatet visade att alla fyra upplevt att de behövde gå i en sorts karantän från behandlings-världen innan de kunde fullborda sin identitetsresa från klient till behandlare. En viktig aspekt av denna karantän var att erövra en professionell legitimitet och äkthet som behandlare. De fyra behandlarna tycktes konstruera sin yrkesidentitet i ett maktspänningsfält mellan å ena sidan upplevda skillnader mot klienter och å andra sidan upplevda likheter med dem. I detta spänningsfält använde de flera olika strategier för att både befästa och göra motstånd mot den egna behandlarmakten.</p>