This master thesis examines the cross-over betweenpolicy goals, legal requirements, economicframeworks, user needs and professional ethicalstandards at public libraries in areas where many ofthe residents have a foreign background. Thepurpose is to contribute to a better understanding ofthe influence of role creation, user control andgoverning of public libraries in Sweden. Qualitativemethods were used to conduct interviews andanalysis. The collected empirical material consists oftranscribed interviews with the library staff, twopoliticians and the library director in Jönköpingsmunicipality. It also consists of the analysis ofregulatory documents governing the library inÖxnehaga. The implementation of the analysis wasbased on Andersson and Skot-Hansen's theory of therole of public libraries in the local community andon Brunssons theory of the organization ofhypocrisy. The results of the study indicate that theinvestigated library mainly adopted the role of asocial center. The results also indicate thatgovernance at the local level was most important forthe library, which places high demands on theindividual library employees. This indicate thatclearer political policies might be needed to ensure auniform set of library services for all citizens. In asimilar way, clearer political policies are neededsuch that libraries can find their raison d'être that isnot merely based on user statistics.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how public libraries and school libraries work with genres and subjects which are uncommon, alternative, narrow or appear to be unknown to many people. The focus is on the attitudes and perceptions of library staff responsible for selecting and mediating media. The method was an online survey which was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Most of the theoretical framework comes from research about the public libraries’ role in society and models for marketing.  The findings show that there are more positive than negative attitudes towards genres and subjects which are uncommon, alternative, narrow or appear to be unknown to many people. A majority of the library staff consider it to be important or important depending on circumstances for the media to be available and visible. Many of them also intend for the library to be a place where people can meet things they are not familiar with. Motivations for working with the material include creating diversity and that people should be able to make new discoveries and find something that interests them. A common motivation against it is that relatively few library users request the material. It is also considered to be easier for some libraries than others depending on size and type.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better under-standing of the roles libraries have during crises and the types of crises that libraries encounter. The thesis will do this by exploring the experiences of library managers and coordinators, and how the work of libraries is perceived during crises, with the purpose of investigating libraries' relationship to wicked problems. The research material used in this study is collected using semi-structured qualitative interviews. In total, nine interviews with managers and coordinators from different types of libraries have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to understand and explain the collected data consists of wicked problems, crises typology, and resilience. The results of the study show that libraries encounter both slow and fast burning crises with the Covid-19-pandemic being the most significant and comprehensive crisis. The majority of the encountered crises can be understood as wicked problems. The role that libraries play during crises depends on the type of the library and its proximity to the public. Based on the collected material, I was able to identify seven general themes that characterize the libraries' roles during societal crises: information and information literacy, the last public outpost, democracy and freedom of expression, safe spaces and well-being, culture and free time, education and development, and support for other public and private utilities. A key finding is that libraries show a high capability to adapt their spaces and services to a changing context, and to help build resilient communities.