The main purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine what librarians in seven public libraries experience as major change in their work tasks. We are also interested in exploring how these changes influence librarians’ ways of working. In addition to this we want to explore if librarians have experienced change in relation to user’s expectations and demands and if so, how they are met. Finally, we examine if there are work tasks that have not been influenced by change. We have chosen to do qualitative interviews with librarians who have been working since the 1970’s and therefore may be expected to have developed perspectives on change in work tasks. This is complemented with a literature study. The theoretical framework is based on Robert D. Stueart and Barbara B. Moranses theory of how change influences organisations. The theoretical framework is also based on Bo Ahrenfelt’s theory of how an organization accomplishes change. According to our informants, computerization has been the main change in their working tasks. All of the informants experience computerization as a positive factor. However, there are work tasks that have not been affected by computerization, for example providing the library with books.Computerization has facilitated both librarians’ possibilities to satisfy users’ expectations and demands and to carry out their work tasks more efficiently. However, librarians’ experiences are that their work tasks as such have basically remained unchanged. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the debate surrounding the implementation of specific library issue systems (the Browne issue system and the Gothenburg issue system) in early twentieth century Sweden. Utilising discourse analysis as a theoretical basis, several articles published in the trade magazine Folkbiblioteksbladet between 1903 and 1911 have been analysed. The articles contain argumentation in favour of either of the two issue systems, through which it is possible to analyse larger ideas regarding the nature of the emerging public libraries in Sweden. Through close reading of these articles, four main discourses as well as a fifth overarching discourse have been identified: efficiency, statistics, guiding, uniformity, and finally control. These discursive discussions both inform and reveal the shape that the debate takes, as well as reveal an understanding of the ideals existing surrounding the formation of the new public libraries in Sweden. The study shows that the influence of the Anglo-American library sphere, as well as a strong interest in technological development and a modernisation of society at large contributed to the issue system debate and subsequently to the formation of the modern Swedish public libraries. Regarding the issue system specifically it was the Browne issue system which became the more widely implemented one in Sweden.  This is a two-year master’s thesis in library and information science.