This Bachelor’s thesis is the result of participation in a minorfield study at Hangzhou Public Library in China. The functionand role of the public library and its librarians are discussedthrough the views and perspectives of the librarians. Sevenlibrarians were interviewed using a semi-structured interviewguide. The results were analyzed with the help of The four-spacesmodel, which was developed to advocate and strengthen the roleof the public library and culture as a sustainable and socialdevelopment. The results are also of interest as there is a lack ofnon-western perspectives in Swedish LIS research and education.The results reveal varied uses of the library in terms of thefour spaces model. Hangzhou public library is similar in manyways to the Swedish and the Anglo-Scandinavian library sector.However, there are also distinct differences, for instance there isgreater emphasis on the librarian’s role as tutor and on the libraryas an educational institution. The informants expressed mixedfeelings towards the future. On the one hand, they believe that therole of the traditional librarian will continue. On the other hand,this belief clashes somewhat with their belief that the publiclibrary will become more of a performative and inspirationalspace. In general, it can be said that the librarians’ views of theirrole and of the functions of the public library are complex and, insome cases, in collision with each other.

The aim of this study is to examine adolescents relationships and expectations toward activities in the public library in a Swedish town. Earlier research has shown that it’s a problem in many public libraries that adolescents don't show up or use the library. Since we have met a number of librarians that mention this problem with adolescent’s not showing up for their activities, we wanted to get the adolescents own points of view as well.To study this area we asked students from several colleges to fill out a survey. In this survey we had questions about if they for one know about what kind of activities the public library has to offer, if they’re interested in them and if not, why aren’t they? We also asked them questions about where they got the information about the activities and where they most wanted to receive it.Our study shows that a great number of our target group didn't know about the activities the public library organized. If they knew but weren’t interested, a common reason was because they don’t like to read. Many of them also said that they would like to receive the information about the activities on Facebook or on other social media. What they didn’t seem to be aware about was that the public library in our town actually has a Facebook page. This implies that the library has a marketing problem, since they don’t manage to reach out to this age group.

In this diploma work we present the results from a study of how adult immigrants utilise the services provided by the public library in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg. A survey encompassing 51 library visitors of foreign origin and an interview with two librarians at the library were performed. The results from the survey show that the majority of the informants were male students inages from 26 to 45 years and that they had been living in Sweden for a maximum of five years. 73% of the informants used the library to borrow literature in Swedish, 53% to read newspapers and periodicals in their native language, 43% to borrow literature in their native language and 43% to read newspapers and periodicals in Swedish. These results were compared with two other related studies with which partial correspondencewas found. In addition, related topics such as multicultural librarianship and the psychological aspects of immigration are discussed.

This master thesis examines the cross-over betweenpolicy goals, legal requirements, economicframeworks, user needs and professional ethicalstandards at public libraries in areas where many ofthe residents have a foreign background. Thepurpose is to contribute to a better understanding ofthe influence of role creation, user control andgoverning of public libraries in Sweden. Qualitativemethods were used to conduct interviews andanalysis. The collected empirical material consists oftranscribed interviews with the library staff, twopoliticians and the library director in Jönköpingsmunicipality. It also consists of the analysis ofregulatory documents governing the library inÖxnehaga. The implementation of the analysis wasbased on Andersson and Skot-Hansen's theory of therole of public libraries in the local community andon Brunssons theory of the organization ofhypocrisy. The results of the study indicate that theinvestigated library mainly adopted the role of asocial center. The results also indicate thatgovernance at the local level was most important forthe library, which places high demands on theindividual library employees. This indicate thatclearer political policies might be needed to ensure auniform set of library services for all citizens. In asimilar way, clearer political policies are neededsuch that libraries can find their raison d'être that isnot merely based on user statistics.

Denna kvalitativa intervjustudie undersöker sex asylsökandes upplevelser av folkbiblioteken i Hultsfred och Valdemarsvik och deras integrationsprojekt ”Låna en svensk” för att bidra med kunskaper om hur folkbiblioteket kan verka som stöd under asylprocessen. Sammanfattningsvis upplevde respondenterna folkbiblioteket som en viktig resurs för att överbrygga de sociala och språkliga barriärer som de mötte i värdlandet. Folkbiblioteket utgjorde en inkluderande social arena som sammankopplade respondenterna med lokalbefolkningen och tillhandahöll språk- och informationsresurser som gjorde det lättare att hantera den nya livssituationen och motiverade dem till ett mer aktivt deltagande i lokalsamhället. Som teoretisk ansats har de asylsökandes interaktioner med folkbiblioteket analyserats utifrån begreppet socialt kapital i syfte att undersöka folkbibliotekets potential att stärka de asylsökandes förbindelser och förtroende till majoritetssamhället. Studien drar slutsatsen att folkbiblioteken bidrog till att stärka det sociala kapitalet på en mikronivå genom bibliotekariernas positiva interaktioner med respondenterna, samt genom de formella möten mellan de asylsökande och lokalbefolkningen som förmedlades via ”låna en svensk”-projektet. På en makronivå bidrog biblioteken till att generera socialt kapital genom att verka som en öppen demokratisk institution som ställer alla användare på en jämlik nivå, vilket fick respondenterna att känna sig som en del av gemenskapen i lokalsamhället.

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine four librarians’ thoughts and attitudes concerning the personal encounter between the librarian and the users in the publiclibrary setting. The research questions are: What thoughts and attitudes are expressed among the librarians concerning personal encounter between the librarian and the users? How do professional ethics, guidelines and policy documents apply to the librarians’ encounter with the library users? Are there any other factors affecting the encounter, and if so, what are these factors? The method used in this study, for answering the research questions and to gather the empirical information, is semi-structured interviews. The theories used for analyzing the results are the moral philosopher RichardM. Hare’s theory of two different levels of moral thinking, the intuitive and the critical level, and Stina Hall’s thoughts on the different preconditions for a successful encounter. Conclusions drawn from this study are that the definitions ofthe concept of personal encounter are different among the librarians, depending on context, duties, personal characteristics and background. In the personal encounter swith the users, the librarians seem to apply professional ethics, guidelines and policy documents, as much as their personal values. Other factors affecting the encounters are organizational factors, beyond the individual. The librarians need to discuss their moral considerations, in the situation of encounter, at a more critical level, in order to use the best encounter tools in the meetings with the users.

Due to technological innovations, the society has new needs and expectations of the public libraries and what they offer. The web can now be seen as a competitor to the library services or as an opportunity for them to market the organization, for example through social media. The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine how public librarians used Instagram in marketing purposes. The research questions we wanted to answer were: • What motives were there to use Instagram for marketing purposes for public libraries? • What interaction is created through marketing over Instagram? • How do librarians think of the use of Instagram in the future? The theoretical basis for the thesis is Gummessons model of the Relationshipsmarketingtheory (RM). RM focuses on the weight of relationships between organizations and their customers. For collecting data a qualitative method was used. Six librarians from three different libraries were elected for interviews. The result showed that public librarians generally had a positive attitude towards library marketing through Instagram. They wanted to show what the library could offer, establish their place in society and reach out to new users, and Instagram was a natural part of the marketing. The study showed that the interaction with library users was low, but the interaction with other libraries and their staff was higher. In the future, librarians had a positive attitude towards developing their Instagram use. Instagram would then become equated with traditional marketing, but requested more clear using guidelines. The librarians also wanted more staff to be involved in the marketing.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how a selection of 1993 year's first books had been spread to a selection of public libraries in 161 municipals. The state 's cultural policy recommends that it is the public libraries' duty to lead the way to new, unknown authors. We wanted to find out if this was fulfilled. The spreading of the books was scrutinized from a number of variables, e.g. gender of the authors, reviews and size of the municipals. Furthermore, 28 public libraries answered an inquiry regarding their acquisition policy concerning first books. The conclusion was that the libraries did not fulfil the state's cultural policy satisfyingly. and this applied particularly to the smaller municipals. 70 % of the public libraries that answered the inquiry confirmed that they have a responsibility for making these books accessible to borrowers. One of the reasons why the libraries did not fulfil the policy was economic. In this situation the libraries often choose those books which are most requested by the borrowers.

Our purpose with this study is to examine how the visitors at the public library of Stenungsund find the library service, if they are pleased with it and what they expect from the library in the future. Why they visit the library and what they actually do there? We also wanted to find out if the visitors would be interested in getting more computers and information technology into the library. Since the library has the highest rates of library loans in Sweden we are interested in, if this has anything to do with the library location which is close to the shopping centre of the town. We used questionnaires in our study and received 560 answers out of 580 handed out to the visitors. It is our conclusion that the visitors are more than pleased with the library service, and also that the location of the library is of importance to how frequent the library is being visited.

This thesis is based on the assumption that the society in which we live is changing and that we are entering into the information society. This change will affect the public libraries in various ways and the libraries will have to be prepared to make adequate changes in their organizations. Based on the theories of Eric Rhenman and Richard Normann, dealing with how organizations act when changes in their environment occur, we have interviewed 10 public library leaders to find out how hteir respective libraries have acted in this situation. The results show that libraries have made some changes in their organizations to meet the environmental changes. Although not changing their old mission, all libraries have computerized and have had to raise the librarians educational level. However, only small changes have beenmade in their work towards the environment. Changes of this kind may become necessary in the future.