The purpose of this master’s thesis is to study the perceptions of accessibility among users and staff at a Swedish public library in a sparsely-populated area. The subject of public libraries in sparsely-populated areas has been studied in a number of previous theses, but a lack of user perspective is evident. This thesis poses two questions: What are the similarities and differences in the users’ and the staff’s perceptions of accessibility in the library services? What are the similarities and differences between users’ and staff’s perceptions of accessibility and their perceptions of the roles of the library respectively? The study’s theoretical frameworks was derived from Michael Buckland’s model of information barriers, and Andersson and Skot-Hansen’s model of the four roles of the public library. The method of data collection was primarily semistructured interviews with users and staff, to a lesser degree document analysis and observations. The results show that users focus on the barrier of too short opening hours, and lack of certain content in the library collection, whereas the staff view the strained human resources as the largest barrier to accessibility. Perceptions of the overall library operation can help to explain the differences. The users view the library as a somewhat static range of services associated with culture and knowledge, whereas the staff perceive the library as playing a active role in promoting culture and knowledge.

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to investigate how the activities of the public library are portrayed by the Swedish press. It poses the following questions: What kinds of public library activities are portrayed in the Swedish press? What image does this depiction purvey to the general public about the societal role of public libraries?A model of four library spaces developed by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Jochumsen is used as the theoretical framework for this study. Qualitative content analysis is applied to 173 Swedish newspaper articles that describe public library activities.The analysis reveals that articles about many kinds of public library activities get published in the Swedish press, but that some activities occur more frequently than others. Articles depicting the public library as a place of literature, a place for lectures, and as a place where you can spend your free time are common, whereas articles depicting the library as a place for seeking information are rare.The essay concludes that if the public libraries want the press to give an accurate account of the roles of the modern public library, they need to make sure that more articles are published which highlight the library’s role not only as a tool for entertaining people, but also for empowering them. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine what role the new city library in Halmstad has for its users. The questions posed in this study are: What do the users actually do at the library? What roles are the most significant according to the users? Have the politicians succeeded in their intention of realizing a modern library according to the users? The theoretical starting point is Andersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s theory of four different roles of public libraries. In order to extend the model we added a fifth function; the one of aesthetical experience. We used a qualitative method and received 504 questionnaires. The empirical data indicates that the most important role is the one as cultural centre, i.e. traditional use of the library as borrowing of books and other media, reading newspapers and magazines and so forth. The roles of knowledge centre, information centre, social centre and the aesthetical function are also important to the users. Our conclusions are that the original idea of realizing a modern library has been a great success. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this paper is to investigate who the visitors are at a children's department at amain library in a larger municipality, and for what purpose they use it. We discuss: Is therea difference between various user groups, and if so, how do they differ'? Which library rolesdoes the children's department have? Does the children's department serve as a local libraryfor those who live in the immediate surroundings or as a main library for the whole municipality?The paper is based on a user survey performed in the spring of 1996 at the City Library ofGothenburg. 417 visitors and five staff members were interviewed.The children's department is used by various groups of people, from young children to seniorcitizens. The library roles are, among other things, an independent learning center and formaleducation support center. The children's department functions both as a local library anda main library.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how public libraries in Sweden handles their weeding procedures. A series of questions are asked: How does libraries in Sweden motivate weeding? What principles constitutes the procedure of weeding? Which aspects are given most importance when weeding is decided. How does views on weeding differ between libraries of different sizes? How does longer or shorter professional experience influence the view on weeding? The study was done through an online questionnaire which was sent to a number of staff members on different libraries via e-mail. Based upon a previous study by Dilevko and Gottlieb, the staff members were asked to value different alternatives on questions concerning why they weed, criterias used for weeding decisions, reasons why weeding is not done, factors discouraging weeding, what is done with the weeded items and what sort of changes could improve the weeding procedure. Results from the survey confirms physical condition, accuracy of information and circulation as the three prime criteria for weeding. Answers about attitudes towards weeding showed a widespread consensus among library personnel regarding the positive effects of weeding. Additionally, results also show some difference between small- and larger-sized libraries where the small-sized libraries seem to take a rather patron-driven approach to weeding, thus leading to a more market-adapted role. In contrast larger-sized libraries seem to weed more out of a culture-intermediate role, giving qualitative criterias such as accuracy of information larger importance than circulation statistics.

This master's thesis’ purpose is to contribute with knowledge about access to public library service in sparsely-populated areas in Southern Sweden. Previous similar studies have focused on Northern Sweden, leaving a lack of knowledge regarding the southern parts of the country. The study takes place in Blekinge county. Three questions are posed: How are the public library’s roles perceived in control documents regarding library service and rural policy? What roles do public library service play in the lives of participants in rural Blekinge, depending on whether they live in the northern forestal area or the southern coastal area? What, according to the participants, contributes to enabling and hindering library use? The theoretical framework derived from Skot-Hansen and Andersson’s model of four public library roles, Jochumsen et. al. 's model of four rooms at public libraries and Buckland’s model of information barriers. The methods of data collection were semi structured interviews and qualitative content analysis of documents. The results show that the perception of public library access depends on where in the county the participants live. In general, participants from the sparsely-populated rural forestal northern Blekinge perceive public libraries as less accessible than participants from the rural southern coastal area. The participants express a lack of access to public transport, which in return affects accessibility to public libraries and increases dependency on car transport. The analysis of regional and municipal control documents confirms that there is a widespread problem with unequal service availability in rural Blekinge county, including public library service.