Several public libraries are displaying media, such as literature, on the websites of their own. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to make a survey of the display phenomenon at Swedish public libraries. Therefore the authors of this essay seek to understand why media is being displayed on the websites of public libraries, how it is being displayed and what kind of consequences the displaying will provide according to the respondents. The theoretical framework is based on different theories where marketing and availability defines the equal summary. The choice of a quantitative method such as a questionnaire was obvious since the purpose is to make a survey. Amongst 290 websites of public libraries 115 were chosen to participate accordingly to the author’s definition of displaying, thus libraries that somehow bring out media. 69 respondents chose to take part of this study. Marketing by displaying seems to be the main reason. There is however some factors that imply lack of using established principles of marketing. Though it is a necessity to display in a prime location there are, for instance, few libraries who display at the homepage – a place considered as a prime display location. Commitment to the websites of the community and lack of time are possible obstacles, preventing improvement of displaying. Most of the respondents recognize however the importance of displaying and support the thesis that displaying is favourable to libraries circulation. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the attitudes among library staff regarding a music downloading service called Musikwebb, which is available in many Swedish public libraries. It focuses on the impact of Musikwebb on the process of music selection, the relationship between Musikwebb and the digital development in public libraries and what service Musikwebb offers its users. The gathering of material was executed through focus group interviews with library staff in four libraries. This empirical material we divided in three categories: Music selection, The Library and its digital services, and Library services. We use the results of Sanna Talja’s discourse analysis regarding the relationship between Music, Culture and the Library to analyze our material. In addition we use Anders Forsslund’s master thesis which also is a discourse analysis concerning human and digital services in public libraries. Our findings include that library staff is ambivalent in their attitude towards Musikwebb. The benefits of Musikwebb comprise that the service offers a wide collection of music, prevents library staff from making uninformed or arbitrary selection of music and that it offers around-the-clock service to those who master ICT. The drawbacks of Musikwebb includes the fact that library staff lose control over the process of music selection, offers little service to those who do not master ICT and that digital services tends to undermine the traditional role of the public library. Despite this fact we also found that library staff think that the traditional and the digital library services should coexist. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between librarians and library support staff in public libraries regarding status, distribution of work and working climate. We were interested to know if there is a conflict between the two occupational groups and how it can be explained. We also wanted to learn what the future holds for the library in terms of professional categories and tasks according to library staff of today. This study is based on twelve qualitative interviews with four heads of libraries, four librarians and four library assistants. Three theoretical approaches were used in the analysis of the interview material: professionalization strategies, conflict theories and theories from group psychology. The results indicate that librarians consider library assistants as a group with low self-esteem and reluctant to change, and uninterested in further education. Library assistants find librarians to be individualists who ignore rules and regulations at the circulation desk. A national education for library assistants is by some respondents considered a good thing, by some necessary for the survival of the library support staff and is by some considered a half measure. Several of our respondents believe that library assistants gradually will disappear from the library in favour of professional categories with a university education. Crossing each other’s territory boundaries causes tension between the two occupational groups and is a source of conflict. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well. When put in relation to the material from the two small town libraries, the following aspects emerge as dominant: the library as a ”third place”, the library as a low-intensive meetingplace, the library as a space for inclusiveness and belongingness – and in a perhaps slightly more indirect way also the library as a space for civic librarianship (in a Swedish sense) and learning aspects. The ways in which the library as social space is described can to a relatively large extent be related to a communicative discourse or civil society, although in some aspects also to the state and market discourses.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate how librarians solve difficult reference questions. The aim is to discuss the nature of reference work – do librarians make conscious decisions regarding search strategies or do they rely principally on their instincts, or simply chance. The thesis is a qualitative study. The main material consists of 36 actual reference transactions that were gathered using the observation method during a five week period at two public libraries in 1994-95. Since the study was undertaken before “the Internet revolution” its main focus is on manual searches. To gain a deeper understanding of the reference process and the librarians’ views on search strategies five interviews with a selection of the observed librarians were also performed. This empirical material was then used to compare with the reference process as described in theory by – mainly – William A. Katz, Denis Grogan and Marcia J. Bates. The study shows that answering difficult reference questions can be a highly creative task and that the approach favoured by Grogan and Bates, which consists of search strategies and tactics rather than detailed charts, is the most consistent with actual practice. The study further shows that librarians’ views on whether or not they consciously use search strategies vary greatly and that either way they have a difficult time expressing these strategies.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate reading habits among parents of preschool children who do not use the public library. Another aim has been to investigate why these parents don’t use the library and if there is anything the library can do to change this. Little research had earlier been done on this subject. The theoretical framework consists of two different models. One is Andersson´s and Skot-Hansen´s model of the four different roles of the public library. The other is Jochumsen´s and Hvenegaard Rasmussen´s model of social space and lifestyles. To answer my questions I have carried out interviews with five parents. In order to find interviewees I first distributed a questionnaire via different preschools. The results show that some of the parents read relatively often and that they all read aloud to their children on a daily basis. They have all been library attenders at some point in life. The reason for not using the library presently varies. Some parents prefer to buy books so that they do not need to think about returning them. Some of them are also discouraged by their image of the library as a place where you must be quiet. These parents also tend to forget that the library exists or believe that it mainly targets other demographic groups. The library can address some of these problems and some not, for instance by developing marketing strategies, implement technical applications that send reminders in advance when books are due back and a more inviting environment.

Mediation of fiction has always been one of the main tasks of the public library. The focus on information technology is often seen as a threat and competitor to this task. But technology can also offer new ways to mediate fiction, and the aim of this thesis is to examine how library websites and blogs can be used for this purpose. The research questions are:• What forms of fiction mediating material exist on library websites and blogs?• How is the fiction mediating material presented?• Are there any differences between the fiction mediating working methods on websites and blogs compared with those in physical libraries?The thesis is based on a qualitative content analysis of eight Swedish public library websites and three blogs, and on a theoretical frame work including literature and research on mediation of fiction, library websites and blogs, web design and usability. The result shows many similarities between mediation of fiction in physical libraries and on the Internet. The advantages of the medium could be better used. Old systems and non-integrated catalogues cause problems and make it difficult to develop the library websites and allow users to contribute. On most of the examined websites users and librarians are not yet involved in an active conversation about literature. Library websites has potential to create a positive image of the library, attract new users and increase the interest in literature. But a high quality website demands resources. Regional and national cooperation is probably necessary.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine library users experience encountering exposed literature. Shops and stores expose the products they most of all want to sell, a kind of marketing strategy that influences our inclination to buy. By conducting a quantitative study, at two minor public libraries, and using theories from the marketing area this thesis intended to investigate the subject further. Eighty library visitors, between age 10 and XX filled out a questionnaire asking how the users experience or register exposed literature and what makes users borrow or not borrow exposed literature. The respondents find exposed literature helpful in directing them to new interesting suggestions of books they otherwise wouldn’t have borrowed. Title and/or subject are crucial as well as the author and backside text of the book in the process of choosing books. Overall the respondents have a positive attitude towards exposure as a phenomenon, and the questionnaire study shows that the majority borrow exposed literature.

The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis is to investigate the public librarian’s professional identity and its relation to the public library as an experience centre. The development of the library as an experience centre raises questions about how public librarians understand their professional identity, and about their motives for working with activities like workshops and qigong, activities that have no significant connection with the librarian’s traditional tasks. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews exploring the perspectives and points of view of four public librarians. A phenomenological approach was taken. The expressed experiences of the participants were categorized according to the model of Anders Ørom and Trine Schreiber, and they are the foundation for interpretation. The interviews with the public librarians revealed that the librarian’s professional identity consists of many different aspects. The librarians express different missions like mediating culture, mediating information and mediating experiences. The librarians express different motives for working with experiences; one is to attract more users. The way the librarians express their motives shows their professional identity in relation to the library as an experience centre. Arranging activities can be used as a means to mediate not only experiences but also information. The interviews also revealed that marketing can be a librarians’ mission. The model used was not sufficient to describe this mission and we have therefore created a new category that we call the marketing identity.

This essay concerns sponsorship of libraries within Sweden. It takes its starting-point in the libraries economical situation where resources are decreasing. The main purpose of the essay is to investigate how sponsorship is used in public libraries. The main questions are:o Why are sponsorships appealing to libraries? o What does the processes of sponsoring look like? o What are the possible risks concerning sponsor-ships – could it endanger libraries democratic role? o How does library staff reflect on the role of libraries in contemporary society? In our study we chose to investigate the sponsorship issue from the sponsored libraries perspective. We used quantitative and qualitative methods in gathering data. In a first step we made a survey covering 290 libraries in order to identify those who were involved in any form of sponsorship. In a second step we chose to interview seven libraries through an open-ended questionnaire, by e-mail. Our results show that sponsorship occurs only to a limited extent and that there are a variety of different models of sponsorship in practice. The most common purpose is financing activities outside the set budget. In times of economical savings, sponsoring allows libraries to arrange special activities. The participating libraries do not consider sponsorships a threat to the main task of the libraries. There may be a risk that libraries would need to rely on sponsorships for their survival. However, if sponsoring is used mainly to finance activities outside the set budget we don’t regard that as a threat.