Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka folkbibliotekens arbete för de nationella minoriteterna, samt om den nya bibliotekslagen som gjort de nationella minoriteterna till en prioriterad grupp förändrat folkbibliotekens arbete i denna fråga. De övergripande frågeställningarna berörde hur folkbiblioteken arbetar med denna fråga idag, om den nya bibliotekslagen förändrat arbetet för de nationella minoriteterna på folkbiblioteken, samt om folkbiblioteken upplever några särskilda problem i sitt arbete för de nationella minoriteterna. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har varit att se på hur minoriteters ställning och behandling i majoritetssamhället historisk påverkar deras ställning än idag. En utgångspunkt har även varit att minoriteter behöver särskilda rättigheter inom majoritetssamhället för att bevara och behålla sin kultur. För att få en bredd i studien gjordes en kvantitativ undersökning i form av en enkät till bibliotekschefer på folkbibliotek runt om i Sverige. Resultaten av enkätundersökningen visade att bibliotekens verksamhet riktad till de nationella minoriteterna är begränsad. Biblioteken har inte heller fått extra resurser eller nya riktlinjer för denna verksamhet. Resultatet visar även att bibliotekslagens nya skrivning inte haft någon större inverkan på bibliotekens verksamhet gentemot de nationella minoriteterna.

The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis is to further knowledge of how the amendment to the Swedish education act relating to access to school libraries has been implemented. The studys’ starting point has been the idea that the act has had an impact on the development of school libraries. The research questions guiding the study were: In what ways do principals actively strive to ensure that school pupils have access to a school library? What opportunities and obstacles emerge in the implementation of the amendment? How do principals view school libraries? To carry out this study an online survey was created and sent to a number of pre-selected school principals. The results were analyzed using implementation theory. According to the results all but one of the investigated schools have access to a library according to their principals’ definitions of access. However, these libraries are not similar to each other and are not used in the same ways. This awakens the issue of how the amendment to the act is interpreted and how the concept of the school library is understood.

The publicly funded libraries should be accessible toeveryone and according to § 4 of the Library Act libraries arelegally obliged to pay special attention to persons withdisabilities. The purpose of this thesis is to examine howpeople with disabilities are addressed in local library policydocuments. The research questions address the disabilitiesidentified in library policy documents and whether the usergroup is named as a priority group. They also address theservice offered by the libraries and operational deficiencies.42 library policy documents from municipalities in VästraGötaland were analyzed by content analysis. Buckland'stheories of different aspects of access to information havebeen used to conduct the analysis. The theoretical perspectiveof the thesis focus on ill-suited environments instead ofindividual inadequacies.The analysis showed that dyslexia and visual impairment arethe disabilities most often mentioned in the library policydocuments. Only half of the documents mentioned personswith disabilities as a priority group. The service most oftenmentioned is accessible media, of which the talking book isby far the most common. Of the deficiencies noted the vastmajority concern the need for better adapted premises.Interventions designed to facilitate retrieval of informationare seldom mentioned in the library policy documents.

The new Library Act came in force in January 2014, external changes such as globalization and information technologies had changes the way libraries work and the new law aimed to reflect this. The aim of this study is to examine ideas surrounding the mission of the public library as it appears in the referral statements that three state agencies and three interest organizations gave to the ministry publications series Ds 2012:13. The questions this thesis examines are: what ideas can be discerned in the respond-ents' opinion regarding public library's mission? How is the con-sultation bodies’ way of looking at public library's mission to-wards the government's approach? In this thesis the empirical ma-terial has been analyzed using a theoretical model called The four spaces – a new model for the public library designed by Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Henrik Jochumsen and Dorte Skot-Hansen. The model consists of four different goals and four differ-ent spaces and can be used as a basis for discussions about the public libraries role in society. The findings show that the state agencies and the interest organizations view of the mission of the public library is that of a knowledge intermediaries and a conveyer of information, of promoting reading and democratic views and having children and adolescents as a focus group. In regards to the comparison between the government’s ways of looking at the mis-sion, I found only a few differences. The respondent’s wanted to widen the mission compared to the governments view. / Program: Bibliotekarie

In this paper we have chosen to work with both the background to the Library Act § 7a and followed the process of creating the library plan of Helsingborg City Library. We have tried to follow the process through the public text documents that are available. We start by giving a background to the library act and its additional § 7a. Then we give a recap of the emergence of the modern public libraries in Sweden during the last century until today. When the working group at the City Library in Helsingborg was working with the library plan, they had to take in count the strategic goals set up by Region Skåne, since Helsingborg is place in that area. We then present the contents in the library plan of Helsingborg City Library. The next step in this paper covers the survey where we review the answers given by the team behind the library plan of Helsingborg City Library. The next step in this paper covers the survey where we review the answers given by the team behind the library plan of Helsingborg City Library. In our thesis, we assume that the knowledge is based on the pre-understanding we gain in the subject. We chose to see this process as a hermeneutic circle and we are trying to see whether we can recover Audun’s overall points in the answers given in the survey. The thesis ends with a concluding discussion of our results and our problem, and makes proposals for future research.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur några bibliotekarier ser på samarbetet mellan folkbiblioteket och skolan angående deras likvärdiga läsfrämjande arbete kring barn och unga. Metoderna vi valt att använda oss av är en enkätundersökning och att se över biblioteksplanerna för de kommuner studien berör. Vi har i enkäten valt att använda oss av både öppna och stängda frågor då vi vill undersöka bibliotekariernas perspektiv på samarbetet. Resultatet vi kommit fram till är att samarbetet ser väldigt olika ut i kommunerna men även att folkbibliotekens riktlinjer är väldigt otydliga för hur samarbetet ska se ut eller inte. Många skolor saknar skolbibliotek och använder därmed folkbiblioteket som resurs till skolan vilket även flera folkbibliotek uttrycker att de inte är deras jobb att assistera skolorna.

Under de senaste åren har frågor kring biblioteken och den fria åsiktsbildningen varit aktuella, både som dilemman som diskuterats inom biblioteksväsendet och som debatter som rasat i media. Det har handlat om hur biblioteken förhåller sig, eller bör förhålla sig, till åsiktsfrihetens gränser. Samtidigt har en nationell biblioteksstrategi tagits fram under ledning av Kungliga biblioteket, där biblioteken beskrivs som ett viktigt försvar för demokratin, och samtidigt som ”neutrala”. ”Neutralitet” har också varit föremål för ett antal artiklar av forskare som argumenterar för eller emot att biblioteken ska förhålla sig ”neutrala”. Denna uppsats undersöker vilka idéer kring ”neutralitet” som finns i bibliotekslagen (SFS 2013:801) och dess förarbeten, och hur dessa kan förstås i relation till ”fri åsiktsbildning” och ”det demokratiska uppdraget”. För att undersöka detta görs en kvalitativ idéanalys av källmaterialet. Detta har gjorts genom Lindbergs metod för kvalitativ analys av idéer samt beskrivande idéanalys. I materialet har tre typer av utsagor studerats: grundläggande värderingar, beskrivningar av verkligheten samt föreskrivande utsagor. Tillsammans bildar dessa tre typer av utsagor ”triader” där en viss värdering och en viss beskrivning av verkligheten tillsammans motiverar en viss handling. Centralt i analysen är också att lyfta fram budskap, motsägelser och oklarheter i det analyserade materialet. Analysen sätts i relation till tidigare forskning, vilket leder till en slutdiskussion om vilka konsekvenser idéerna kring ”neutralitet” kan få för bibliotekens möjlighet att utföra sitt uppdrag. Slutsatserna är att ”neutralitet” är ett ”tomt” begrepp som kan fyllas med olika innehåll, beroende på vilka intressen som finns hos den som använder begreppet. Motsägelserna i bibliotekslagen och dess förarbeten kring hur biblioteken samtidigt ska verka för ”demokratiska värden” och vara ”neutrala” inför alla typer av åsikter gör det komplicerat att följa uppdraget. I och med det långtgående och motsägelsefulla kravet på ”neutralitet” kan det finnas en risk att biblioteken inte har någon tydlig värdegrund att stå fast vid under politiska svängningar.

According to § 4 in the Swedish Library Act, public libraries are required to pay special attention to persons with disabilities. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how this prioritized group is addressed in municipal library plans. The research questions focus on how the library plans interpret the Library Act paragraph, what strategies are used to accommodate the group, as well as which disabilities are represented. 30 library plans are analysed using thematic analysis, seen through a theoretical framework inspired by intersectionality with a focus on categorisation, as well as an inclusive library model. The results show a strong focus on making reading accessible through adapted forms of media and outreach services through partnerships. There is also a tendency to focus on accessibility of literature rather than retrieval of information. Beyond accessible literature the library plans also display strategies to make the library room physically accessible för persons with disabilities. The disabilities mostly represented are reading and writing disabilities and mobility impairment, while cognitive disabilities are underrepresented.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine in what way the introducing of library plans in three municipalities have affected the work in library organizations. We base our study on a new institutionalist perspective, which focuses on changes in organizations from a social and interpretative perspective. By using this theoretical framework, it is possible to study how interpersonal relations affect the development in library organizations. Through qualitative interviews with ten librarians, we investigate how the establishing of library plans has influenced, and been influenced by, the library field and by the environment, i.e. politicians and the public. Further, this thesis investigates whether the library plans are articulations of traditional values and norms of the field, or if the plans have implied new ideas in the daily work. We observe that it is of decisive importance who initiates the establishing process of the plans, and that communication with politicians is crucial in the working process. The library work in the investigated municipalities is directed by institutionalized norms, values and routines, which are articulated in the library plans. Our study shows that this articulation works in two different ways. In one aspect it reinforces the institutionalization and has a legitimizing function. In another aspect, it has a limiting impact on the library’s ability to environmental adaptation and organizational change of a revolutionary nature. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The objective of this thesis is to explore possible explanations for the composition and contents of local library plans. A review of 33 local library plans from three Swedish counties was carried out in order to investigate the strategic documents design and contents in relation to the legal requirements placed upon them. In order to accomplish this task an analysis tool that consists of an eight-item questionnaire was constructed. A qualitative analysis of the texts, based on a new institutional theoretic framework, was performed in pursuance of finding causal factors to the properties of the texts. The results of the investigation reveal that the new institutional theories constitute a relevant framework for interpreting the strategic documents. Proof of existence of several phenomenon defined by theorists of new institutionalism were found. Strongest evidence was encountered for the legitimizing function of the texts .Numerous signs of the presence of hypocrisy, the procedure of integrating organizational structures, processes and ideologies for internal and external application, were also found in the texts. There were also some manifestations of an acquiescing and/or compromising organizational response to external pressure. Even though the theoretical framework was found to be highly relevant for the interpretation of the texts it is difficult to reach an unambiguous conclusion. Further investigations on this matter is recommended in order to determine the exact causal explanation of the design and contents of Swedish local library plans.