The purpose of the present thesis is to investigate the interaction between the branches in the different villages and its users and the importance of the branches for democracy. To illustrate these points, I have focused on Högsby municipality, a local council in Kalmar county. Högsby municipality is of particular interest in this connection, since all seven of the branches have been closed recently; only the main library remains. Moreover, three of the closed branches were, in 2005, taken over by citizen organizations local to the part of Högsby municipality where the libraries were located. The specific issues that were addressed were:- What needs were satisfied by the local libraries in Högsby council and is it possible to satisfy these needs in other ways and then, how?- Does the absence of a local library affect democracy?Interviews were performed. Protocols from council meetings and newspaper articles have been studied and supplemented with statistical information from “Statistics Sweden” and “Swedish Art Council”. Although no general conclusions can be reached on basis of the present investigation it is reasonable to presume that the situation as regards local libraries in other parts of Sweden exhibits similarities to the situation in Högsby municipality. Thus, it seems likely that the local libraries fulfil important functions as centra of knowledge, culture and information and as meeting place, but to varying degrees depending on the local circumstances. If the local libraries fulfil their roles in these contexts it is very likely that they also are very important for the democracy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore branch librarians’ ideals for mediating fiction and their view on the literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council. The study is based on the following questions: How do branch librarians reflect about mediating fiction? How do they express their view and their work with literature that are distributed by the Swedish Arts council? And which ideals of mediating can be distinguished from these expressions? To answer these questions a qualitative examination based on interviews with four branch librarians where used. The empiric material where then analysed by Jofrid Karner Smidt’s theory about different ideals for mediating fiction. Smidt’s theory is published in her doctor’s dissertation Mellom elite og publikum. Following conclusions are drawn from the study: we saw that there are multiple ideals regarding how to mediate fiction and that these ideals often co-operate side by side of each other but conflicts do occur in some cases. The librarians have a positive view on the literature that is distributed by the Swedish Arts council and believes that the books contribute to a broad and high quality library collection. The librarians express a wish to increase the loans for these books by mediating or market them. We believe that a solution could be that the Swedish Arts council contributed not only with books but also with some marketing assistance to the libraries.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine the activity at the library and preschool at Kristineberg (a part of the town of Borås) and its underlying approach. How do the activities agree with the ideological attitudes of the 1970s? To answer these questions I have carried out a case study based on qualitative interviews. The theoretical background includes ideas of the library, the community center and the cultural activity at the library. From this a theoretical synthesis containing two anti-poles is made using Skot-Hansen’s presentation of attitudes to culture: The humanistic and the sociological attitude. The empirical material has been structured by means of a content analysis, using keywords and arguments associated with each side of the theoretical synthesis. My conclusion is that the activities at the library and the preschool of Kristineberg show a great similarity with the sociological attitude of the 1970s. In discussions about the branch library, the preschool and the community center you can find ideas about creating a meeting place in the local area with the function of integrating people and stimulating their creativity. This is found in the attitude of the informants as well as in the activity at Kristineberg. In spite of this there are also humanistic elements but only to some extent.