The aim of this study is to examine the roles of the children’s librarian in a reading aloud context. To reach understanding in this subject, we have conducted interviews with four Swedish librarians working in public libraries whom are involved with reading aloud practices. Previous research shows that the reasons for reading aloud in libraries are diverse and plentiful. Such reasons can be to spread cultural experiences, help children develop their language skills and promote the library to the public. The research also shows that librarianship has shifted towards a more information and technology oriented line of work due to the advancement of society as a whole. For the analysis we use the models for role characterization constructed by Maj Klasson and the role descriptions by Linda Nilsson. The results showed that many roles exist cooperatively and many positions towards the patrons can be seen. There is no indication that the work of the children’s librarian in a reading aloud context has been modernized in any technical sense – the book and the social interaction still remain the core.

The following thesis will examine how a smaller library manages the prioritization of media between Swedish and 'minority language'. We are also interested in the challenges and problems that can occur in such work, as well as how the librarians think about their role in the integration process. We have studied this through several qualitative interviews with librarians as well as earlier related research. The results show that librarians display a high propensity of appreciation related to working with minority languages and consider this an important aspect of their profession – they fully ingratiate and accept the importance of helping the immigrant population in learning Swedish. However, our study also discovers several organizational problems that hinder this work, which mainly relate to a lack of funds and other issues related to resource inefficiency. The conclusion states the awareness and importance of providing media in minority languages, but is hindered by flaws in the systems surrounding the organization of public libraries.

The aim of this thesis was to examine how role players experiences libraries and if the libraries are or can be an arena for activities that involves role play. A public library exists for everyone, but could nevertheless be viewed as a female sphere where women both borrow more books and visit the libraries program activities to a larger extent, compared to men. I asked the question whether men’s reason for choosing a different venue for information and culture was related to the libraries not being able to satisfy their needs. The theory of the thesis was Dorte Skot-Hansen, Casper Rasmussen Hvenegaard and Henrik Jochumsens model that states that the libraries can have four different functions and act as a venue for meetings, knowledge, inspiration and experiences. The chosen method was semi-structured interviews. I interviewed six male role players in order to study how they perceive the function of today’s public libraries and aimed to find out how the libraries could improve to meet the needs of the role players. The result shows that the four functions currently do not function particularly well according to the target group. The role players had, however, both needs and desires regarding future activities at libraries. The conclusion is that libraries could change both what literature and cultural activities they offer. If the libraries change this according to the needs of the target group they would be an attractive place for this male target group.

The aim of this essay is to examine fan culture’s role in Swedish public libraries. I have interviewed, via email, six librarians who encounter and use fan culture in their daily work. The theoretical elements of my essay are based on a modified set of theories by Dorte Skot-Hansen that identifies six ideal types of cultural political rationalities. My study reveals that fan culture is used in Swedish libraries as a tool in increasing user participation in library activities. As a tool it is used first and foremost to attract young people to the library and to present the library as an environment that is welcoming to all cultures and all kinds of users. Interview responses suggest that there is a high demand for events connected to certain types of fan culture. I also draw the conclusion that the use of fan culture in a public library setting is facilitated by the interactiveness afforded by Library 2.0 tools.

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to investigate what role the public library in Sweden may have when it comes to gender equality issues. The questions at issue that were asked, in order to give an answer to the aim, was how the librarians defined and saw work with equality, how much the steering documents for the library impact and what they are doing in their practice to weaken the dichotomies between the sexes. The theoretical starting point used for this study is three concepts, the gender system, the stereotypes and the gender contract described by the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman. The purpose of the three concepts is that gender is a social construction which produces gender stereotypes and a gender order in society, which the library is a part of. The investigation was made on one public library in Sweden where an equality project has been carried out. The method used for gathering data is qualitative interviews with three librarians at one main public library with its branches. The conclusions drawn from this study is that the librarians thought equality issues are important for the library to work with, the steering documents are weak in these questions but usable if you have carried out an equality project and finally there are many things a library can do in its practice to weaken the dichotomies e.g. deny certain books, clarify steering documents etc.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how elderly people seek and use information in everyday situations. A further aim is to suggest ways for the library to offer more services specifically tailored for pensioners. This is an important topic as pensioners are a rapidly growing group of library users. We conducted qualitative interviews with four elderly people concerning their information needs in everyday life, and discovered that they rarely use the library, preferring instead to get their information from various internet sites and their pensioners’ organisation. The interviews were analysed with the help of Anderson and Skot-Hansen’s model of library use. We suggest that libraries work more closely with pensioners’ organisations, thus allowing elderly people more options for information seeking, as well as greater access to library services and resources.

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to investigate how library statistics, performance measurement and indicators represent the modern public library activity. During the last decades the public library has gone through a lot of changes. Information overall has increased and new technology has been introduced into the library. This new development has had effects on the library users. The statistics reported to the Statens kulturråd (National Arts Council) has not changed in the same way. My aim is to find out if the performance measurement and indicators are up to date, and to what extent. Through qualitative interviews with two library managers and a small study of documents my aim is to answer the main questions of this thesis: • What performance measurement and indicators are used in the libraries examined?• To what extent do performance measurement and indicators relate to development and decision making? • How useful do library managers think that performance measurement and indicators are? The theoretical framework consists of Library and Information science literature address performance measurement and evaluation in public libraries. The analysis has shown that it is difficult to evaluate the public library purpose and goals, due to the difficult task of setting clearly definable goals in public libraries. Result shows that present library statistics collected by the Statens kulturråd (National Arts Council) is not up to date. Present library statistics do not represent the modern public library activity.

This thesis examines how library employees experience the library as a meeting place. Our questions are: What effect has the concept of a "library as a meeting-place" for library staff?How do they see the library as a meeting place? How do they see their workplace as a venue for meetings? The respondents interviewed work in public libraries. We were inspired by a cultural geographic theory that we re-designed. The following divisions were made in order to give the work a definitive structure:The "mental space"The library as a meeting place on a global and universal level;The "conceived space"Librarians and planners' thinking on the specific library as a meeting place;The "living space"How library staff perceive that the library is used as a meeting place in reality.In our analysis, we use a phenomenographic qualitative interpretive methodology. Phenomenography concerns the differences and variation of a phenomenon. In our case, this is how the library staff experiences the library as a meeting place. The result of our interviews gives us indications that the majority of respondents think the library is a meeting place for visitors (from the local community). It appears the library, as a venue, is used for many kinds of meetings. There are the meetings between visitors – but also meetings within the physical premises or concerning organising the library itself. We found that our respondents see the library as a meeting place from three different angles: from a societal perspective, an individual perspective and a library perspective.

The aim of this Bachelor thesis is to analyse how the libraries in the district of Tranemo was affected by the fusion of municipalities between 1952 and 1974, when 13 municipalities was merged into one. My major findings are that one of the libraries became the main library and libraries of the other villages became branch libraries. The main library could increase its quality by employ an educated librarian and move to a place that was more adapted to its purpose. The library loans increased. This course of events seems to be common for what happened to Swedish libraries when there were a lot of fusions of municipalities these years.

The bachelor thesis examines conceptions behind the Swedish public librarian’s opinions of the public library as a meeting place. The study uses the critical discourse analysis, developed by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, to analyze a focus group interview. The discourse analysis identifies four themes in the empirical material: the imagined arena of the meeting place, the behaviour in the meeting place, the meeting place’s librarian and the polemic against the meeting place. Within the themes an antagonistic struggle is identified between a democratic, an individualistic and an organizational discourse. The three discourses strive to define the public library and its librarian. As a result, a degree of ambiguity can be found in the public librarian’s conception of the idea of the public library as a meeting place. The thesis further discusses how the polemic attitude in the empirical material could possibly be linked to the idea of the library as a meeting place founded in a local political sphere, rather than to the theories in library- and information science. The thesis finally identifies the current research on low-intensive meeting places in library- and information science as a possible solution to the ambiguity in the public library regarding the value of the meeting placeaspect.