This bachelor thesis in Library and Information science (LIS) aims to examine faculty perceptions of what constitutes and legitimizes an academic library. Academic libraries have experienced immense changes in the last several decades, mainly due to techno­logical advances such as electronic resources, but also the increase in students, teachers and researchers. Many libraries are trying to to provide new services and expertise to remain indispensable to users, which contributes to a fragmented image of academic libraries. This study addressed the following research questions: What are teachers’ and researchers’ expectations of an academic library? How do teachers and researchers think about access and resources? What are teachers’ and researchers’ perceptions of future academic libraries? The study was conducted using a qualitative approach where eight faculty members with experience of being both a teacher and a researcher were interviewed at the Faculty of Health and Society at Malmö University. The data was analyzed using an analytical framework of legitimacy and documentality deriving from Professor Joacim Hansson (2015), but adapted to fit the study. The analytical framework mainly contributed in clarifying which library resources and services can be considered either essential or mostly facilitating. The findings show that faculty perceives the academic library as crucial for their work, especially for giving access to printed or electronic literature, guiding users in how to find and value relevant information, assisting in publishing matters and in education. However, faculty also considers resources and supportive services intrinsically non-essential to teaching and research as relatively important, and truly values the personal contact with the librarians. The results indicate that academic libraries will persist in the foreseeable future, though an informed strategy is necessary.

Under de senaste decennierna har dokumentation intagit en allt större roll i förskolans vardag. Samtidigt har ett ökat fokus på lärande och kunskap skrivits fram i de senaste revideringarna av förskolans läroplansmål. Utifrån denna historiska bakgrund och genom en överblick av tidigare forskning formulerades syftet med denna studie: att undersöka hur tillfrågade förskollärare och pedagogistor resonerar kring deras val i dokumentationsprocessen för att belysa vad som berättas om förskolan genom dokumentationsarbetet. Inhämtningen av det empiriska materialet har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med 3 förskollärare och 2 pedagogistor från Skåne och Småland. Empirin analyseras utifrån ett kritiskt socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv och med Ferraris teori dokumentalitet, samt med hjälp av begreppet diskurs som ett sätt att undersöka hur språket formar vår verklighet. Studiens resultat visar att bilder och videoinspelningar är de främsta metoderna som används för att fånga upp det projekterande arbetet i förskoleverksamheten. Projektarbetet är det som ligger till grund för dokumentationsunderlaget för det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet. Omsorg beskrivs, i relation till dokumentation, som en naturligt förekommande del i förskolans verksamhet vilket påverkar omsorgens position i dokumentationen. En faktor som påverkar pedagogernas val i dokumentationsprocessen är bland annat upplevda förväntningar från ledningen. Som även tidigare forskning visat belyser resultatet i denna studie svårigheter att dokumentera omsorg och att den ofta förkläs i beskrivningar av målformuleringar eller värdegrundsarbetet i förskolan. Genom detta framgår det att omsorg som eget område tenderar att osynliggöras i dokumentationen och därmed i det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet.

KvinnSam is stated to have had an important role in laying the foundation of academic gender studies. The initial organization was founded relatively long before the subject entered the academic arena, which places the knowledge organization of the field prior to the authoritative demand for it. This study aims to analyze events, initiated by the library, significant to the academic establishment of gender research from a discursive perspective. By utilizing the concepts of documentality and legitimacy, and cognitive authority the analysis answers the question of what active function and significance the library has had in establishing the academic field of gender studies. The empirical material is gathered from the libraries own archives on historical women associations, published accounts of librarians engaged in the organization and articles and debate pieces published in media. The historical method used results in no produced material but a controlled selection based on the theoretical approach and the placement of the accounts in a contemporary context. The analysis results in a review of both the official and informal constitutive forms the library has been situated in and its effects on legitimacy. It also covers the relations to the academic sphere as cognitive authority and the process of making an uninstitutionalised subject field considered veracious science. The most valuable conclusions are the library’s function to describe and value knowledge and thereby declare their scientific relevance, as well as the discursive significance of stating the field as a possible research domain by creating an academic infrastructure for it.