This thesis is a contribution to the discussion on the public library’s institutional identity in late modernity. The aim is to shed light on the public library’s identity as expressed through its public events. The thesis seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of public events are offered at public libraries? What themes distinguish the content of these events? What characterizes the institutional identity expressed through these events? In addition to the concept of institutional identity, a model of four library spaces, developed by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Jochumsen, constitutes the theoretical framework of this thesis. Qualitative content analysis is applied to entries gathered from the joint events calendar of the public libraries in Stockholm. The entries pertain to events taking place during the first four months of 2013. Common events at the libraries studied include: homework help; instruction in e-book, smartphone, and internet use; legal advice; book clubs; language cafés; story times; sing-alongs; interactive children’s plays; author visits; lectures; musical and theatrical performances; film screenings; exhibitions; arts and crafts; and creative writing workshops. The analysis results in five themes that encapsulate the content of the public events: help center, café, playground, stage, and workshop. The themes are metaphors for the public library’s implied relation to the events in question. The public library’s institutional identity can be characterized as a composite of these themes. Furthermore, it is concluded that the public library is an institution with a relatively stable identity grounded in the ordinary rather than the spectacular. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This bachelor thesis examines public librarian’s views on collection development and selection censorship in the public libraries today and how they work to raise awareness so that it does not constrain the selection. The subject belongs to collection management in the public library field. The study aims to investigate the librarian’s perception of different pressures on Swedish public libraries collections today and where they come from. The three questions posed in this study are: what pressures and controversies can public librarian’s experience in their work with selection? Where and in what way does pressure on Swedish public libraries selection arise from, according to Jacobsen and Thorsviks model: from above, below or sideways? How does the public librarians rise awareness in the selection process to cope with subjective and outward pressure? The method is based on four interviews with operating public librarians, and their thoughts and experiences on the subject. The theory used in this thesis is a model by Dag I. Jacobsens and Jan Thorsvik, called Features for the three institutional pillars. It is used to trace where pressure originates from within an organization. Here it is applied to public libraries and the impact on the selection, studied from three perspectives; above, below and sideways. The results show that the selection is guided by democratic laws about diversity, laws against offensive content as well as libraries mission to purchase on demand. The librarians seldom or never experience any oppression, aggression or organized that challenge the libraries selection or censorship. The main pressures are of individual origin, they are library users that challenge both the librarian’s expertise and the selection principles. In the selection process librarians discuss that they are subjective beings and that they hence can affect the selection with their own involvement through subconscious values. Being aware of this process makes it less problematic. The librarians rarely have anything substantial to go by in the selection process, like a formal strategic media plan, it tends to be either inadequate to use, outdated or not practically useful. The informants for this study experience mediaplanning takes time and effort, at the same time they have less resources and time to do so. Which makes it problematic to examine and have quality selections, for example it could lead to oppression on the professional role of the librarian.

The aim of this thesis is to comprehend RFSL’s concept of LGBTQ-certification, and how different public libraries all around Sweden perceive this certificate and later on applies it to their actual work. Also, my thesis will examine the ways in which RFSL’s certification and education is portrayed by the libraries referred to. This will mainly be done by an analysis of the libraries social media (here:Instagram) but also how the full concept is conveyed in daily press. The notion of certification as a social regulation will be deconstructed and construed as well. The thesis discovers three recurring themes in articles from the Swedish daily press. The three recurring themes are identity, treatment and expense. The first theme, identity, illustrates how the journalists and the library staff are talking and forming the LGBTQ identity. The second theme, treatment of library patrons, shows how the librarians are concerned about how to meet LGBTQ-people who visits the library. Hence the LGBTQ-people need a different approach the “the ordinary library user”. The third and last theme, expense, discusses how a majority of the articles talks about the certification like an investment. From the libraries Instagram accounts another three themes were discovered. These themes were celebrating the certification, books with LGBTQ-themes and Pride. The first theme, celebrating the certification, is portraited with rainbow cakes, balloons and a festive atmosphere. The second theme found from the libraries Instagram accounts are pictures of books with a LGBTQ-theme. The third theme from Instagram is Pride. Here the libraries are po

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what ideas there are about the future role of the public libraries in society, what challenges the public libraries may face and how the public libraries will continue to be a place to meet. The future of the public libraries has been, and still is, a discussed topic and many believe that public libraries have an obvious place in society. The thesis focuses on library plans from the ten largest municipalities in Sweden. The theory used to analyze the source material in the study is The Four Space Model made by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot‐Hansen. This model consists of four “spaces”, learning, meeting, inspiration and performative space that represents different aspects of how to manage a library, these spaces were more or less represented in the library plans. The results of the thesis showed that the library is a popular meeting place and that the public library has an important role, as an institution, to play in the society. Results also showed that cooperation between the libraries in the same municipality, but also cooperation with public libraries in other municipalities is important for the future.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att sammanställa vad Open Source är och försöka kartlägga hur användningen av Open Source-program ser ut på de svenska folkbiblioteken.Jag tittar även på vilka Open Source-program som kan vara aktuella för ett bibliotek att titta närmare på. Resultatet visar att Open Source inte används i någon större utsträckning men att man är positivt inställd till rörelsen. Några få program har börjat användas men man är orolig för hur supporten fungerar för Open Source-program, sen verkar biblioteken inte ha någon större kontroll över vilka program som faktiskt används utan är styrda av de regler som kommunens IT-avdelning har satt upp.</p>

<p>The aim of this study has been to examine how people with the chronic disease diabetes are seek-ing information about their disease. The study also look at the sources, which are mainly used, and the information behavior of the participants in this study. Especially in diabetes health care the idea of empowerment is central, which means that the patients need a lot of information to get know-ledge and become empowered. The study also examine the public library as a resource of health information, and for that purpose an examination of the OPAC catalog in two public libraries has been done, using the word ‖diabetes‖ to illustrate the literature and other medias related to di-abetes. With this part of the study a quantitative method has been used. Qualitative interviews have been used both with people who has diabetes and with librarians in the examined libraries who are responsible for the department of medical literature in the library.</p><p>The study used Carol Kuhlthau´s theory about uncertainty in the information seeking process in which she propose that seeking information is a holistic experience. In the process of seeking information there are different levels, where the user experience a lot of feelings before the seeking process is ended. Though there are suggestions that the idea of empowerment emanates from Paulo Freire´s theory of emancipation pedagogy, his theory is also relevant in this study.</p><p>This study reveals that for those participants with diabetes the public library is not a place where they seek information about diabetes. The primary source is the health care where they go for regularly controls. But when they seek information by themselves almost everybody used Inter-net as their main source. For the informants that not used Internet as often as the others, their social relations where more important to get information. The need of information appeared more impor-tant when the metabolic control was unpleasant, otherwise most of them were looking for informa-tion about new facilities as; blood glucose tester and research about insulin. In the libraries both librarians had noticed that people did not ask as many question as before about illness as in earlier days, which could be related to the fact, that information about health care is more easily found today.</p>

The aim of this study has been to examine how people with the chronic disease diabetes are seek-ing information about their disease. The study also look at the sources, which are mainly used, and the information behavior of the participants in this study. Especially in diabetes health care the idea of empowerment is central, which means that the patients need a lot of information to get know-ledge and become empowered. The study also examine the public library as a resource of health information, and for that purpose an examination of the OPAC catalog in two public libraries has been done, using the word ‖diabetes‖ to illustrate the literature and other medias related to di-abetes. With this part of the study a quantitative method has been used. Qualitative interviews have been used both with people who has diabetes and with librarians in the examined libraries who are responsible for the department of medical literature in the library. The study used Carol Kuhlthau´s theory about uncertainty in the information seeking process in which she propose that seeking information is a holistic experience. In the process of seeking information there are different levels, where the user experience a lot of feelings before the seeking process is ended. Though there are suggestions that the idea of empowerment emanates from Paulo Freire´s theory of emancipation pedagogy, his theory is also relevant in this study. This study reveals that for those participants with diabetes the public library is not a place where they seek information about diabetes. The primary source is the health care where they go for regularly controls. But when they seek information by themselves almost everybody used Inter-net as their main source. For the informants that not used Internet as often as the others, their social relations where more important to get information. The need of information appeared more impor-tant when the metabolic control was unpleasant, otherwise most of them were looking for informa-tion about new facilities as; blood glucose tester and research about insulin. In the libraries both librarians had noticed that people did not ask as many question as before about illness as in earlier days, which could be related to the fact, that information about health care is more easily found today.

The question of the provision of electronic books in Swedish public libraries has lately evolved into a lively debate in Swedish media, where the public library‟s identity and itsexpected role as a democratic institution is an underlying topic. The aim of this bachelorthesis is to examine the idea of the public library‟s identity as expressed in newspaperand journal articles by writers connected to the library sector. The aim is achieved byexamining the language-use and identifying discourses in the debate. We use adiscourse analysis inspired by Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis, focusingon linguistic aspects of the text as well as the surrounding context which the texts bothinfluence and are influenced by. By applying linguistic tools, two main discourses areidentified on a superior level, of which one, the information technology discourse, isconsiderably more dominant than the other and has obtained a hegemonic position overa far less distinguishable, yet present counter-discourse. Furthermore, three internaldiscourses are identified on a subordinated level, as constituting the informationtechnology discourse. These three discourses, the market discourse, the technologicaldiscourse and the provision discourse are not to be seen as contrary to each other butrather as three aspects together constructing the superior information technologydiscourse.

This two years master's thesis in Library and Information science, examines how the implementation of new technical equipment can affect how staff in public libraries organize their work and activities in the library. One Swedish public library in specific is the subject of research in this thesis, which has been anonymized as Kvarntuna city library. The study takes place in the beginning of the implementation of RFID-technology in the library. RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, is supposed to make the handling with different types of media in the library more efficient and in connection with the implementation one wants to reorganize work and activities in the library to make it even more efficient and also create a modern library. The thesis' method is qualitative interviews with six members of the staff. The theoretical framework of the thesis is a sociocultural perspective, especially inspiered by Roger Säljö, a Swedish professor in pedagogical psychology. The sociocultural perspective emphasizes physical and intellectual tools as important components in everything people do, for example when learning, thinking, taking action and interacting with others in different contexts. Tools has an medieting effect. The thesis' result and analysis is presented thematically in different levels of contexts: the mental context, the physical context, the communicative context and the historical context. The sociocultural perspective makes it possible to understand the implementation of RFID in itself, rather than the actual technology, as a tool that is used to change the way work is organized in the library. It can also be seen as a screen through which it is possible for the interviewed staff to think and reflect how a different way of organizing the work would be. Some statements indicate that it is difficult to see what could change in the way the work is organized when implementing RFID, and all of the interviewed persons make some kind of statement that they know little about what a different way of organizing the work is or that it is too early in the implementation to tell or know something about that. However, what was expressed in the interviews indicates that the implementation is a tool in the making and the implementation itself can be seen as the reorganized way of work or a start of it. This is since tools has an developing effect on both actions, thoughts and organizations. Therefore we can see a discrepancy between what the interviewed persons first said, and what they later expressed. Finally, from a sociocultural point of view one can see that people have a big opportunity to control tools, in libraries too, and use them according to their purposes. Technology is therefore not a threat to libraries' existence, but can rather be seen as an opportunity to develop the organization.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the debate in Swedish library press concerning privatization of public libraries. The aim of the thesis stems from a desire to know whether Swedish librarians, as has been alleged in contemporary right wing debate, are politically biased and adherents of socialism. The debate is analysed using the method of idea and ideology analysis, using the tool of ideal types of the ideologies socialism and neo- liberalism. As material I have chosen articles from the magazines Biblioteksbladet and DIK Forum, from the years 1989 to 2010. The reason for choosing the topic of privatization is that it is a controversial question and a topic one could expect to generate a heated debate.Four positions can be discerned in the debate. One group of participants propose the privatization of public libraries. Amongst the reasons for this are arguments about raised effectivity, lower costs and greater adaption to customers demands. All of theses arguments fit well into neo-liberal ideology. Another category of articles is opposed to privatization due to ideological reasons. Among the arguments offered is that private libraries will lead to ”commersialization” of the libraries stock of books. A third category is against privatization but due to reasons that are hard to describe as ideological. Instead the articles focus on more pragmatic questions, for example the difficulties for private libraries cooperation with other libraries The last category of articles is neutral to the question of privatization.The thesis has not been able to answer satisfactory the question whether swedish librarians are biased and adherents of socialist ideologi. The reason for this is that few of the participants in the debate are librarians.This is a two years master's thesis in library and information science.