This bachelor thesis has as its aim to investigate theSwedish librarians’ views and opinions about censorshipof their libraries' collections as well as buildinginformation about the context of challenges against thesame collections. In Sweden the public can't, unlike in theUSA, formally challenge material and are forcedto”complain” the subject with a librarian. What is deemedas controversial, both by the public and by the librariansthemselves are explored through qualitative interviewswith six librarians.The librarian's find that they rarely experience anythingthat can be called aggression or organized protests likethose found in the USA. The main arguments against partsof the libraries' collections seem to come from parentswanting to protect their children against what they deem tobe ”unfitting” themes, such as sex or sexuality or worksdeemed undignified, such as collections of jokes. Thelibrarians themselves are against censorship as a whole,but are very restrictive about the libraries' collections ofelectronic media. Video games and movies have to pass avery stern checklist to be procured resulting in a meagerselection for the libraries' visitors, compared to theselection of literature or magazines. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The Swedish institute of racial biology was the first of its kind in the world. The purpose of their activity was to gather information about the different kind of racial characters of the Swedish population. They did this by traveling around the country gathering pictures and statistic information. In 1958 it was decided that the institute was going to get integrated with the University of Uppsala and change its research focus to a more medical genetic. Most of the research material also got integrated into the university’s library.The purpose of this paper is to find out how the institutes collection has been handled through the ages and if there have been any controversy or debate about it. To put it in perspective I also want to see how the University of Uppsala handles other sensitive materials in their collection.The collection has always been open to everyone who wanted to take part of its content. But the documentation of the collections handling has been poor and quite a big part of the collection has been lost, for unknown reasons. The only part of it that has been restricted is the material that contains pictures of naked children. These restrictions were set just a few years ago by Uppsala University, and they are almost ineffective since the librarians have no means to uphold them.There seems to be a lack of discussion about the handling of material of a sensitive nature on behalf of the librarian community. Since there apparently needs to be some sort of restrictions towards some material in the libraries collections, this restrictions need to be discussed so they get the desired effects. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This paper is a research review in the realm of censorship systems andfiltering systems. It applies ethical considerations to the creation of censorshipsystems bringing forward discussion on the ethics of technology with thepurpose of limiting access to information.There is active research being done in the area of automatic content filteringand censorship systems. These are systems that can filter out undesiredmaterial, typically from the Internet, automatically. Used in some nations,many schools and even mandated in some libraries there are many ethicalquestions raised concerning censorship and access to information.Part of the review concerns the level of accuracy of these systems presentedby researchers in the field and the different approaches used. Reviewedarticles centre around automatic content classification and filtering ofpotentially harmful materials with regards to minors while some relate tocensorship technology in a wider sense.Results show a general lack of discussion concerning the ethics of thetechnology in the research reviewed. Most of the filtering systems underdiscussion are concerned with pornographic material. The existence of somekind of moral guidelines are often implied but hardly explored explicitly ordefined. The most common techniques are intelligent content filters in theforms of textual or visual analysis and increasingly both combined. Resultsindicate a high reliability for filtering pornography and significantly lowerresults for other domains. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This bachelor thesis examines public librarian’s views on collection development and selection censorship in the public libraries today and how they work to raise awareness so that it does not constrain the selection. The subject belongs to collection management in the public library field. The study aims to investigate the librarian’s perception of different pressures on Swedish public libraries collections today and where they come from. The three questions posed in this study are: what pressures and controversies can public librarian’s experience in their work with selection? Where and in what way does pressure on Swedish public libraries selection arise from, according to Jacobsen and Thorsviks model: from above, below or sideways? How does the public librarians rise awareness in the selection process to cope with subjective and outward pressure? The method is based on four interviews with operating public librarians, and their thoughts and experiences on the subject. The theory used in this thesis is a model by Dag I. Jacobsens and Jan Thorsvik, called Features for the three institutional pillars. It is used to trace where pressure originates from within an organization. Here it is applied to public libraries and the impact on the selection, studied from three perspectives; above, below and sideways. The results show that the selection is guided by democratic laws about diversity, laws against offensive content as well as libraries mission to purchase on demand. The librarians seldom or never experience any oppression, aggression or organized that challenge the libraries selection or censorship. The main pressures are of individual origin, they are library users that challenge both the librarian’s expertise and the selection principles. In the selection process librarians discuss that they are subjective beings and that they hence can affect the selection with their own involvement through subconscious values. Being aware of this process makes it less problematic. The librarians rarely have anything substantial to go by in the selection process, like a formal strategic media plan, it tends to be either inadequate to use, outdated or not practically useful. The informants for this study experience mediaplanning takes time and effort, at the same time they have less resources and time to do so. Which makes it problematic to examine and have quality selections, for example it could lead to oppression on the professional role of the librarian.

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The naked body is an entity that has always been present in both the “real” world and the media. The anatomy of our bodies isn’t something we can avoid; today it reflects the reality that has developed partly from media. According to Instagram’s guidelines users are not allowed to publish naked or semi-naked pictures but that does not stop certain users that are critical to how the body norms and censorship are portrait today. In our study, we take part of research regarding gender in multimedia settings and how they have affected our daily lives. As well as studies, which research the usage of hashtags and how to circumvent censorship. The focus for this study is to research what role Instagram and hashtags have in generating a public discussion as well to draw attention to various issues and causes that are based on norm critique. We have conducted two different observations, held interviews with activists and created an online-survey for users to answer what they think about the Instagram community guidelines. The results show that there is an underlying discrimination acceptance within Instagram and their community guidelines. We can also see that women and users who uses hashtags can spread their causes more effectively, although they are simultaneously at risk for being censored depending on the hashtag they use. According to our respondents from our research there is an agreement regarding the need of updating Instagram’s community guidelines, which could help with eliminate the current discrimination against women and their breasts. At the end of this study we are giving a proposal to how Instagram can work with their censoring in a more critical way. This may contribute to an agenda to make social media platforms safer and less discriminating.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine discourses and practices in the handling of materials from the ex-treme right in the Swedish national collection at Kungliga biblioteket (the Swedish national library). Questions posed in this study concern what practices have been used in the handling of the material, the discourse sur-rounding the material and its relation to power structures. The source documents in this study come from the library’s archive records between the years 2000 and 2010. As a complement, the study also uses correspond-ence with librarians active during the time period as well as an interview with an expert on the Swedish extreme right. This study uses Foucauldian discourse analysis as a method and searches for discursive patterns and power structures in the source documents. The essay sees a complex progression in how materials from the extreme right have been handled throughout the time period 2000-2010. In summary, the researched material contains two discursive patterns. Although on opposite terms, they can both be linked to the restrictions of the material. During the time period, a separate collection was set up for extremist material, a collection which is now taken apart. This study argues that “extremism” is a relative term by definition and therefor unsuitable for labelling any material in the long run. This study is a two-year master‘s thesis in Library and Information Science at Uppsala University.

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In this bachelor's thesis we wanted to explore the complexities of collections management in a Swedish prison library. One of the many challenges of being a prison librarian is determining which literature is appropriate. A prison librarian must consider the guidelines established by the state agency Kriminalvården, whilst also considering the Swedish library law. A client is entitled to have access to the same level of service as the rest of the population, but cannot receive literature which may harm their rehabilitation or encourage future criminal behavior. Herein lies the problem. Using a phenomenographic approach, we have conducted five qualitative, semi-explorative interviews with five different prison librarians. We wanted to be able to determine who makes the decision on what literature is restricted, what the librarians think of the resulting censorship when it is restricted, and how they experience having to navigate this challenge. We determined that it is the state agency that decides what is allowed to the clients, but the prison librarians feel that decisions are not clearly motivated. The librarians also experience a lot of positive interactions in their decisions around collection management and with the clients, but that they are not taken into consideration regarding decisions made by the authorities. There is also a need for more resources, time and visibility in the larger library-discussion. We suggest that there is a need for clearer communication, more involvement for the librarians and a need for clearer guidelines.

Does the freedom of information apply to delinquents? According to Swedish law, prisoners and detainees should have access to library services comparable to public libraries. However, this is not the case since there is specific literature not allowed in prison. Interestingly, The Swedish Library Act (2013:801) states that the library’s task is to promote the development of a democratic society by openness to various perspectives, i.e. no censorship or other obstructive measures. This Bachelor’s thesis aims to analyse how Swedish prison libraries are portrayed in journals from the library and information sector by identifying different discourses in articles.  The library and information profession have long been characterised by traditions of fairness, open inquiry, service and humanism. These traditions also form social justice theory in library and information science. By identifying discourses related to fairness, open inquiry, service and humanism in articles written in journals from the library and information sector, this Bachelor’s thesis illuminates attitudes toward prison libraries’ media collections and rehabilitative purposes. It is shown that Swedish prison libraries’ media collections are portrayed as restricted and censored, which according to discourses related to fairness, open inquiry, service and humanism, have a negative impact on rehabilitative measures as well as maintaining the freedom of information.