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 aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how the introducing of municipal library plans has influenced some compulsory schools in Malmö. I wanted to know if the library plan is a possible way to improve the quality of the school library. Through qualitative interviews with four school librarians and four headmasters, I investigate their knowledge of the library plan and their opinion of the possibilities to realize the directions of the plan. The theoretical framework is based on a model of organizational culture by Bakka, Fivelsdal and Lindkvist. The model shows characteristic features of the local cultures of an organization, external as well as internal. As a complement I also use a model concerning the division of power between the lawmaker and the executor. The result shows that very few among the staff at the schools are familiar with the municipal library plan. The librarians sometimes use the library plan as a support and a checklist in the daily work, but when it comes to the development of the school library, the library plan doesn’t play a crucial part. The apprehension among most of the interviewee is that it is possible to implement the library plan in the long run. One of the reasons to the slowness is the local culture and the history and traditions of the Swedish schools. Differing vocational training and a lack of communication between teachers and librarians makes it difficult to learn from each other and for the teachers to take part of the library culture. The administrative machinery is another obstacle. The shortage of money and the great variety of tasks in the schools delay the implementation of the library plan. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This master’s thesis aims at examining and structuring different viewpoints concerning the assignments of the Swedish public library system. The method used is ideology analysis.The main questions are: what are the overriding goals connected to each of the different assignments? How are these goals motivated? By which means are the goals to be reached? And how does our analysis relate to earlier research on the assignments of the Swedish public library? The thesis can be said to consist of three main parts. Part one is a theoretical framework introducing the concept “ideology analysis” and the concept “schools of thought”. Part two is an examination of different documents regarding the public library and its assignments. Analyses of political documents such as the Library act and other documents, such as documents from the Swedish Library Association and from periodicals are included. Part three is the analysis. The examination in part two leads to the structuring of four sets of schools of thought, each with a slightly different view of what the public library should and should not do. The first school of thought focuses on the public library as a beacon for an open and democratic society. The second school of thought focuses on the public library as a mediator and promoter of reading, learning and language. The third school of thought puts the public library's strong connection to the education system and knowledge in general in centre. The fourth, and last, school of thought stresses the impact the public library is liable to have, and in some cases already has had, on the economical growth in a region. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The main purpose of this Master thesis is to illuminate the understanding of local politicians regarding the public libraries and the librarians. We argue that the local politicians´ opinions regarding public libraries and librarians influence the way they act and react in their roles as politicians.In order to achieve the aim of this thesis we focused on following questions:What are the opinions of the politicians:- regarding themselves in relation to the public library?- concerning public libraries in general and its functions especially in the municipalities of their own?- concerning the librarians and their work in a public function?What are the conclusions to be drawn regarding the politicians´ interest and commitment to public libraries in the politic daily-life of the municipalities? Our empiric material consists of qualitative interviews with six politicians elected in two municipalities in the interior of Västerbotten, a northern sparsely populated district. In order to distinguish the various opinions that emerge from the material, we apply a phenomenographic approach. The analysis result we present in three conceivable categories in order to express the different opinions.In general our study points at a positive and favourable attitude to the public library, and all the respondents assume that the municipality ought to offer this service. In spite of these facts the local politicians show a low commitment to the library service they have the responsibility to decide on. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In the spring of 2019 a proposal for a new national library strategy, The treasure trove of democracy, was handed over to the Swedish government. In this study the municipal response to this document is analyzed from a legitimacy perspective with a focus on the role of the Swedish public library today. Through a thematic analysis of eight of the municipal organization the study shows how conflicts between the proposal’s authors, representing the National Library of Sweden, and the perspectives of the municipal actors. This conflict revolves around a different view on the degree of control on the national level and a response that views the proposal as insufficient to coordinate the Swedish library system. The strategy proposal can be seen as having an insufficient level of legitimacy from a municipal perspective, mainly based on their interpretation of it as difficult to implement but also due to its challenge to the well-established legitimacy of the municipal sovereignty. Since the public library system is such a significant part of the Swedish welfare system the responses analyzed in this study can be a significant hurdle for the implementation of the proposed strategy.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine which ideas about the public library that appear in a selection of municipal library plans and to examine if these ideas are unanimous. The comprehensive questions are: Which ideas about the public library appear in each municipal library plan? How do the ideas agree in the different municipal library plans? The sub questions are: Which judgements of reality appear in the different library plans concerning each municipality and its library needs? How do the municipalities define the concept of development and future demands in the municipality on the basis of the judgements of reality? Which recommendations do the judgements of reality give and how is the plan of action that is established in each library plan justified? Which fundamental views of reality, i. e. which values of the library and its role (function, task and responsibility in the municipality), do the library plans contain? The theoretical basis of the study is a model, designed by Dorte Skot-Hansen, consisting of three rationalities – humanistic, sociological and instrumental - that constitute the cultural policy. Idea analysis is the textual analytic method used in this study to classify the material and make visible the ideas in the library plans. The concept of the idea consists of the three elements: judgement of reality, recommendation of action and a fundamental view of reality. A modified version of Skot-Hansen’s model is used as a means to analyze the empirical material, which consists of six library plans. The findings of the study show that each library plan manifests all of the rationalities and that the ideas about the library that appear in the selection of library plans are practically unanimous. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In 1911, library pioneer Valfrid Palmgren was the first Swedish person to publish a political plan for school libraries. Our purpose of this study is to compare Palmgren's document to the SOU 2012:65, one of the most recent policy documents for school libraries, and investigate whether the political point started from the children and young people when scheduled school libraries and its activities. The study has examined whether Palmgren and the SOU 2012:65 has put children in focus as “beings”, viewed as thinking individuals who should be a part of the decision process in the school library policy. A content analysis has been performed on Palmgren's document and on the SOU 2012:65. This required a ponder of the various changes that have occurred in the social structure over time. Our conclusion of this study is that Palmgren's library plan is in focus in terms of both physical-, organizational- and economic conditions, because it describes how the young has been the starting point, and are in need to be included and consulted to school library activities as beings. SOU 2012: 65 expresses a great knowledge of children’s development, individuality and needs, and thus assumes a view of children as beings. Except when it comes to questions dealing with issues that affect the political municipal budget.

The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) has in recent years distinguished themselves in the arena of library policy and have initiated several controversial proposals in this field that goes against what can be considered the traditional public library mission in Sweden. These proposals, although much written about in media has been the focus of few studies and not one single study has focused exclusively on the Sweden Democratic library policy field as a whole. Therefore it has been my intention to do a textual analysis on thirteen political documents concerning library policy from the Sweden Democrats during the years 2018 to 2021 on all the political levels of decision making in Sweden: national, regional and municipal. With the help of researcher Dorte Skot-Hansens model of rationalities in nordic cultural policymaking I have tried to identify the predominant lines of policy in the material and the conclusion is essentially two main rationalities. The first one is the social conservative rationality in which the main goal is to preserve traditional Swedish values, which can be found on all political levels. The other one is the radical right rationality which is mostly distinct in the municipal and regional level and in which the main goal is to assimilate citizens into the Swedish culture. Both these rationalities make up the main political currents in the library policy of the Sweden Democrats which I have christened the the rationalitities of national identity.

This master’s thesis attends to a debate in the Swedish daily press concerning the public library which arose after the Swedish Moderate Party’s publication of their cultural political document Kulturen 2.0. This document contains a number of standpoints, of which three directly concern the public library: charges on book loans, libraries on contract and politically balanced purchase policy. In all, 28 articles are examined by means of an idea and ideological analysis. The purpose is to find out what is behind the conflicts surrounding attitudes about the public library's mission and activity in an era of needs for change. On the basis of Douglas Raber’s account of three ideological strategies - social, conservative and populist - that constitutes the theoretical framework, the ideologies behind the ideas that stand out in the debate are to be identified. Four main conclusions are deduced from twelve preliminary inferences: (A) the combination of the social and the conservative strategy by the critics in the debate; (B) the conflict between critics' position according to (A) and populist strategy by advocates of the Moderate Party’s suggestions; (C) and (D) treats intrinsic dilemmas in the Moderate Party’s idea systems, there social respectively conservative strategy stands against populist strategy. Dilemmas concern either inconsistencies between different levels or on a metaphysical level with their fundamental principles contradicting each other. Factors influencing the results are constituted of various contents ascribed to certain central concepts such as education, access and democracy. This associates the statement ”the public library as the cornerstone of democracy” with alternate meanings. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis is to determine how the 2018 draft of the first Swedish National Library Strategy was received by the library sphere and its other stakeholders and how their views may have affected the final version of the National Library Strategy published in 2019. To approach the purpose of this investigation a rhetorical analysis of the written comments of the stakeholders have been carried out to examine how they make their arguments and voices heard. The empirical analysis is based on these 83 statements of opinions that were handed in to the National Library of Sweden between May and October 2018. For the first time in Swedish history a National Library Strategy has been formed in attempt to promote cooperation and library development within the public library sphere. To examine the impact of this organizational change the theory of New Public Management has been applied to the study. The result of this thesis shows a varied response to the National Library Strategy draft, with comments on both structure and disposition, language and content. Many appreciate the chance to get involved and use this chance to voice their opinions on matters both small and wide. The response from the stakeholders has also shown a questioning of the form of the National Library Strategy draft as centralizing and governing instead of collaborative and supportive. Earlier research also shows the question to be complex and diverse. This thesis serves as a contribution to the research field on library development, organizational change and cultural policies. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.