In the new Library Act of 2014, it is stated that public library supply should be characterized by quality. To investigate what this means for the library, I do a functional analysis of ideas of librarians' views on quality and how they work with purchasing, weeding and mediation. I have chosen to limit the essay to fiction for adults in Swedish public libraries. By combining the basal idea analysis, where I investigate librarians' ideas about quality, with an operational analysis of ideas, where I examine the effects librarians' quality ideas get for the daily work, Iwant to find out the librarians' quality ideals. The material I analyze consists of 18 questionnaires, filled out by librarians with responsibility for purchasing and / or thinning in libraries across Sweden. The analysis is done with an analytical schedule, that consists of a number of opposing ideal types taken from previous research on quality, purchasing, thinning or mediation. In this way I want to show how librarians quality idea and practical work relate to previous quality ideas and ways of working. The result shows two in many ways opposing ideas of quality: craftsmanship, where quality sits in the work's aesthetic, and impact on the reader, where quality arrisis in the meeting with the reader. Put in context, idea number one can be seen in quality definitions where quality is seen as relatively objective, where experts best can judge a work's quality. The second quality idea is often associated with a user-defined and subjective quality. One can also see how it is a special kind of impact, development, that is associated with quality. If we look instead at the operational analysis we can see how librarians, especially in the work of purchasing, promote the popular, both in terms of authors, titles and genres. The librarians purchase a lot on demand and use circulation figures to see what needs to be purchased: that which it lent much. Popularity rather than quality is what decides what should be purchased, except for literature of very low quality that is not bought at all. Also in weeding circulation figures is used; even though literature of very high quality is moved to the magazine instead of beeing weeded. Regarding the mediation of literature, librarians to some extent try to lead their users toward literature of higher quality, but they are careful not to judge neither reader or literature. When giving advice on literature, it is from one reader to another. It is important that the readers themselves choose what and how they want to read. User influence is what steer the work of purchase, weeding and mediation. The librarians quality ideas only to a very limited extent influence the librarians practical work, why I believe that it is impossible to speak of a quality ideal. Instead I want to describe the librarians' way of thinking about the library's literature as a value ideal. Furthermore, I would call the librarians value ideal a customer-driven value ideal, where the user is seen as an enlightened and well-informed customer with both the right and the knowledge to determine what the library should purchase and prioritize. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

In 2011 the public libraries of Gothenburg city implemented so-called floating collections. In floating collections the items are not housed permanently at a specific library instead they move between libraries depending on where the item is picked up and left off. Therefore, floating collections are controlled by the library users. Making it a part of a user-centered trend found within Swedish libraries. Literature both praise the benefits with floating as well as highlighting the risks of unpredicted challenges. In the case of Gothenburg city, the public library’s collection management and development has caused debate in the media. Especially the library staff has expressed dissatisfaction. In this thesis seven public librarians have been interviewed about how they perceive working with floating collections, the benefits and drawbacks, as well as the larger effects it has on society. They express certain positives that mainly benefit active and knowledgeable users. One of the greatest drawbacks of flowing collections is the uneven flow between libraries. It leads to stagnated pools of items in some areas and draught in others. The librarians also feel they have been excluded in the process of implementing floating collections as well as during further centralization of the collection management in 2022. The centralization and user centered perspective have decreased the librarian’s control and knowledge of the collection. The data from the interviews has been analyzed in relation to existing literature on floating collections and with the perspective of following theoretical concepts: democratic equality, segregation, periphery and peripheralization. I conclude that the drawbacks of floating collections outweigh the benefits from an equality point of view. The structures of floating collections do not take the full spectrum of library users into consideration, which connects to an uneven flow of items in the city. Items tend to flow from socioeconomic peripheries to socioeconomic centers which increases the peripheralization and segregation of Gothenburg city. The public libraries of Gothenburg need to reconsider their collection management and readjust the structures to create more equal conditions for all users regardless of digital knowledge, age, and other social factors. This includes giving the librarians increased influence over the collections to increase and practice their knowledge. The librarians should also be encouraged to maintain the local perspective at each library while simultaneously seeing to the needs of the city as a whole. The users’ needs could still be the center of the system without being at the expense of the librarian’s ability to influence the collection. Many users are dependent on the librarians to use, affect and be inspired by the collection. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.