The purpose of the study is to investigate how the library's activities for digital assistance support older participants in learning to use digital technology. The libraries role in counteracting digital exclusion is investigated. To investigate this, both the participants and the staff who lead the activities were interviewed. Ten interviews of the users and four interviews of the staff were conducted. The results show that the participants have two main purposes of attending the activity: learning more about digital technology and socializing. More funding would be needed to further develop the activities. Practical exercises is positive for the participants learning. The knowledge of digtal technology vary between participants, and it would be beneficial if there were different levels of difficulties on the activities. In order for the staff to provide optimal guidance, their knowledge about different operating systems should improve. In addition, it may be an advantage if the participants receive information about smart technology, which can solve a common problem. Libraries play an important role in reducing the digital gaps. If the activites that strive to reduce the digital divide ended, it would enlarge the digital divide. The libraries are the top organisation that strive to counter digital divide.

This thesis is about the Färjestadens librarys users in a self-service libraries. Färjestadens library is a public library in Öland a island in the Balticsea in Sweden. The library moved to new facilities in April 2016. During these times they also obtained a new system: self-service libraries, which means that the user could use the library from 7 am to 10 pm every day of the week. This new change was interesting to examenine, how the users use the library room. Method to examine this was with interview guides and then transliterated and sorted in categories. The results in this studie where to answer two questions about how users used the self service and the second question what function did it have on the users? The findings were that Färjestadens library users use the library three of the four spaces/functions in the library.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine how perceptions of the public libraries’ operational mode are expressed in the media debate in the autumn of 2018. The 31 articles analyzed were retrieved from Swedish daily newspapers and Internet news sites. Questions posed in this study are: which discourses about the public libraries’ operational modes are visible in the debate?; how do the discourses portray private and public operational modes of the public libraries? and which subject positions are visible in the statements? To answer these questions Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory was used but since they don’t provide any explicit method on how to use their theory inspiration was sought in other academic papers which previously used the combined theory and method. The discourses found were named the privatization positive discourse, the privatization negative discourse and the operational mode pragmatic discourse. The privatization negative discourse is dominating in the debate due to the quantity of statements and the capability to dismiss the statements claimed in the other discourses. The analysis reveals that journalists and authors have a prominent position in the privatization negative discourse and can therefore form the discourse and the content of the debate as a whole. The position is that privatization will lead to dismantling the unique collaboration between the libraries which in turn will lead to lower quality and in the long run perhaps erode democracy. The study concludes that the debate is rather polarized itself due to different ideological perspectives.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the use of the word digitalization ("digitalisering") in a Swedish library context, and to relate the use and the assumptions underlying it to different views of technology. The empiric material chosen was the report Den femte statsmakten, published by the National Library of Sweden in 2017 as part of the production of a national library strategy. A tool for structuring and analysing the material was created, based on the different grammatical functions of the words digitalization and digital, also drawing on the works of linguists Fairclough and Fowler. Findings showed that digitalization was often described as an independent actor, impacting on both organizations and individuals. The use of the word digital ranged from describing specific materials and tools, to describing the entire society and the present. These results were then further discussed in relation to different perspectives on technology, revealing a strong deterministic tendency in the studied material, where the current development was taken for granted. Questions about the influence of big tech companies on the technological development and the definition of digital competence were also raised.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to create an updated image of why and how staff at public libraries in Sweden work with social media in 2019 and what challenges they experience in this work. The study is based on interviews with nine persons who are working with social media in public libraries. The results were analyzed through the theoretical framework Relationship Marketing, developed by Evert Gummesson. The result of the study shows that the primary purpose of the libraries' use of social media is to spread different types of information concerning the libraries and their activities. To communicate with the users is another purpose, but not as prominent as the information part. All libraries in the study use Facebook and all but one uses Instagram. At most of the libraries, one seems to mainly value the followers one has, while at other libraries one wants to reach new followers and attract new library visitors. Lack of time and resources, unclear strategies and the GDPR-law are the challenges that the respondents experience in the work with social media, as well as the difficulty in standing and reaching out in the information society we live in today.

An increased access to information and knowledge through the development of information- and communication technology, Internet and social media has led to changes in perceptions of what the public library is and what role it has in contemporary society. In addition, the use of smartphones has contributed to an easy and economic way to market an institution and to build relationships with users through visual communication. In the context of adapting both to the influences of a global market and stated cultural policies on a national, regional and municipal level, the public library aims to serve a target group that includes all citizens. The question at issue states: How does the public libraries in Jönköping use Instagram to market their activity and in what way is different library roles expressed through the images? During 2016 – 2017, 302 images were posted on Instagram by the municipality of Jönköping. These images where studied using content analysis. The four spaces model, as explained by Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Skot- Hansen (2012), was used to analyze the result. The result shows that the public libraries use Instagram to legitimize the librarys existence towards users and decision-makers, to build relationships with users and to market activities, for instance. he majority of the studied images could be related to the inspiration space.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the use of the word digitalization ("digitalisering") in a Swedish library context, and to relate the use and the assumptions underlying it to different views of technology. The empiric material chosen was the report Den femte statsmakten, published by the National Library of Sweden in 2017 as part of the production of a national library strategy. A tool for structuring and analysing the material was created, based on the different grammatical functions of the words digitalization and digital, also drawing on the works of linguists Fairclough and Fowler. Findings showed that digitalization was often described as an independent actor, impacting on both organizations and individuals. The use of the word digital ranged from describing specific materials and tools, to describing the entire society and the present. These results were then further discussed in relation to different perspectives on technology, revealing a strong deterministic tendency in the studied material, where the current development was taken for granted. Questions about the influence of big tech companies on the technological development and the definition of digital competence were also raised.

Societal changes caused by the widespread digitalization of several important public as well as private sectors of everyday life has led to increased demands for digital literacy amongst the general public. Meanwhile, there are several demographic groups that for different reasons are excluded from the digital arena, the elderly especially. The public libraries, leaning on it’s democratic as well as it’s educational mission, has taken widespread action to extenuate the problem through digital inclusion efforts, in particular the cooperation through the Digidel network. The purpose of this thesis is twofold, first we strive to gain knowledge in regards to the users experiences and use of digital technology, second we examine the users experiences of the libraries digital inclusion activities. The theoretical framework applied consisted mainly of Van Dijk & Hackers analysis of the four barriers of the digital divide. As a complement Prenskys digital natives, digital immigrantstheory has also been applied. Four semistructured interviews were conducted with elderly participants of the Digitala första hjälpen program activity at Motala digidelcenter at Motala stadsbibliotek. The results indicate that material access to digital technology is a nonproblem for the participants, and that the technology is used in a variety of ways, although mainly for information seeking and communication purposes. Use of digital technology is considered relatively complex and anxiety inducing, which library guidance help mitigate. Furthermore, the study shows how digital inclusion guidance works both in a problem solving and a competence improving capacity. Lastly our results indicate how appreciated these activities are amongst the participants.

The aim of this thesis is to study the valuation process of a work of fiction by actors within or linked to the library system in Sweden, to identify who these library actors are as well as the value regimes that they express. The theory of value was devised by Barbara Herrstein Smith (1988) and states that a work of literature, through encounters with different actors within the field of literature, acquires several different values. This theory was concretized and put into practice by Ohlsson, et al. (2013) and Forslid et al. (2015) who discovered values within five categories as well as two value regimes. Högspänning, written by Henrik Bromander, is a work of fiction that received state supported distribution from Kulturrådet in year 2019. This means that the book was distributed to more than 280 public libraries in Sweden. This thesis follows Högspänning and its value negotiation process through encounters with different library actors, from publication in January 2019 to November 2020. Actors within or linked to the library system were identified by the collection of public digital documents containing value judgements through searching for them online. The results of the thesis show that Högspänning meets 16 different library actors who express different values and who perform various acts of value creation. The finding that is of most interest is the fact that librarians, with both professional and personal knowledge of literature, can be found in the intermediate range between the two value regimes.

The point of this thesis is to determine what the effects are of bibliotherapy from both the views of the participants as well as the leaders. The basic idea of the thesis stems from several scientific articles and books on the subject matter from the past ten years that highlight the lack of empirical material regarding user intentions in bibliotherapy. The thesis is based on a deductive approach through these previous texts. The empirical material gathered through the use of seven semi-structured interviews with both leaders and users of bibliotherapy. The participants have primarily been involved with creative bibliotherapy in library settings as well as in churches. The qualitative data gathered through interviews were then analysed via several theories based on, among others, emotional response, aesthetic reading and catharsis.  It was found that while leaders initially were not in control of what impressions the potential participants initially had about bibliotherapy, or what use they thought it could bring them, they tried to mitigate it by being thorough and clear what regarding the goals about bibliotherapy were. However, it was generally concluded that whatever goals the participants originally had usually converged towards the end with the intended goals of the leaders of the various bibliotherapy schemes, whether they be personal development or emotional catharsis.