The purpose of this master’s thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the municipal library of Västervik. There have been four previous libraries and our examination starts in 1859 with the foundation of a parish library. The other forerunners were a working-class movement library and two libraries in the International Orders of Good Templars. Before the merger of the libraries there were discussions in the municipal council, among the working-class movement and in the IOGT. The municipal library was inaugurated in 1908. Algot Johansson, a worker, became the first librarian and he was very important for the development of the municipal library. We conclude our examination 1945, when Algot Johansson retired. As a background and comparison we describe the development of libraries in Sweden and the national policies. As a comparison, we can see, among other things, that Västervik was early with a merger to a municipal library, but late with free loans and subsidies from the state. The national policy from 1930 has been very important for the municipal library. To analyse the origin and development of the municipal library in Västervik we used a theory by Magnus Torstensson, about two perspectives of structures and actors. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the library of Workers´ Educational Association in the community of Oskarström. This library is special because the organisation run it much longer than usual, until 1977, and to find an answer to why, we have the following questions: Why does the library of Workers´ Educational Association start their activity in Oskarström, and how does it develop, in relation to premises, librarians, financing, the stock of books and the numbers of books out on loan? What is the reason that the library in Oskarström is municipalized as late as 1977? The methods we use are hermeneutics and evaluation of the sources. The library is founded in 1914 and become important for the workers. Important sources of income are the subventions given by the state, municipality and other associations. The library acts as a public library during all its time. After the final reforms of the municipalities in Sweden, the new municipality Halmstad take over the library in 1974. The reason why the organisation runs it until 1977 is because the municipality wants to build new premises for the library, and these are not finished until that year. / Uppsatsnivå: D