Att besitta goda digitala färdigheter blir en allt viktigare förutsättning för att både kunna vara aktiv och delta i ett demokratiskt samhälle samt klara vardagsnära sysslor. Biblioteket har i många fall kommit att bli en plats som både erbjuder digitala verktyg men också där man kan få hjälp med frågor av digital karaktär.  Syftet med den här studien var att förstå hur personal på folkbibliotek uppfattar arbetet med digital delaktighet och skapa en förståelse för hur folkbiblioteket främjar den delaktigheten. För att uppnå vårt syfte gjordes en fallstudie där fallet var projektet Ökad digital delaktighet i Örnsköldsviks kommun. Ett antal dokument kopplade till projektet analyserades och fem semistrukturerade intervjuer utfördes med nyckelpersoner i projektet. Programteori tillämpades för att beskriva strukturen i projektet och förstå hur de olika antaganden som gjordes relaterade till varandra medan ett teoretiskt ramverk över den digitala klyftan utformad av Jan Van Dijk användes  som begreppslig stomme i analysen. Analysen resulterade i en logisk modell som belyste att personalen på folkbibliotek har insett att deras och bibliotekets roll med att stödja personer i digitalt utanförskap är viktigt. Studien visade vidare att aktiviteter behöver anpassas utifrån användares olika förutsättningar och behov. Inte minst visade uppsatsen att arbete med digital delaktighet kräver samarbete med olika organisationer och myndigheter och att folkbibliotek kan vara en drivande kraft i lokala samhället.

Foreign visitors to libraries often face cultural barriers when using the library. This study shows how librarians see the library as a meeting place in terms of intercultural and multicultural aspects. In previous studies, the focus has mostly been on library users, but there is a need to complete the gap regarding the role of library employees. The findings presented in the article are the result of a qualitative study. The empirical data was collected from semi-structured interviews with six library employees with experience in the multicultural and intercultural field. Putnam´s concepts of social capital and oldenburg´s concept of third place were used when analyzing and coding the material. The library as a third place and social capital was also used as a theoretical framework. The result shows that the library is both a multi- and intercultural place where the reception and activities of people with a different cultural background are important. At the state level, the results show that the working method is not written verbatim in the library plans and their described tasks are affected by this. Despite various differences in the libraries, the informants describe that they have cultural competence and some believe that they can always develop their competence further. They also believe that we live in a multicultural country where the library needs to be inclusive for all groups. The information obtained can be used for further research and consideration as to whether it reflects changes in the role of public libraries.

The aim of this study is to see how users of the public library positions librarians with their competencies and to compare this to librarians' own thoughts about their competencies. The research questions were as follows 1) How do the public librarians, who participated in our study, view their competencies? 2) How do users, who participated in our study, view the competencies of public librarians? 3) Are there any similarities or differences between the users and the librarians views about the public librarians competencies? The method is semi-structured interviews with six librarians and five users. The data was then analyzed with positioning theory. The results show that users positioned librarians as a profession characterized by pleasant and service minded professionals with useful literature knowledge. The librarians positioned themselves in a profession where assisting their users is the main goal, that every competence matters because one never know who one is meeting and what their needs might be.

The purpose of the study is to gain insight into the activities of the Gothenburg public library for those with a language other than Swedish as their mother tongue. By examining the years 2014 and 2022 the aim is to understand if and how the activities have changed following the events in Sweden in 2015. The empirical data consists of 13 selected documents and seven semi-structured interviews. A qualitative content analysis has been conducted on both the documents and interviews. The theoretical framework is based on previous research but also includes governance and implementation theory. Governance is illuminated through the selected documents, while implementation is illuminated through the interviews. The results show very little change in governance after 2015. The interviews reveal mixed opinions regarding implementation, but what stands out primarily is how governance often does not function effectively in practice.

This thesis aims to describe the genre of librarypodcasts that have emerged in Sweden since 2013.Through the overall design of a comparative multiplecasestudy, the two pioneering examples ofCirkelpodden and Bibliotekspodden Solen are beingdescribed and compared, in order to contribute to abetter understanding of what these radio productionsconsist of, on what reasons they have been establishedand finally what this practice based on more explicitjournalistic working methods might implicate for theprofession of the public librarian.Thirty-three programs of Cirkelpodden andBibliotekspodden Solen published during 2103–2014 andtwo semi-structured interviews with the librarians ofthe podcasts are analysed through quantitative contentanalysis and qualitative thematic analysis. Thetheoretical framework is principally based on WiebeBijker’s model of two different ways to perceivetechnology: the deterministic view as an autonomousforce, and the constructivist view as an instrumentcontrolled by man.The results show that the main reasons to adopt thisweb 2.0 media format was to improve the library’straditional ways to talk about books. Besidespresenting books and problematizing the inhold of it,the podcasts were used to enhance the job satisfactionand to promote the library. The main conclusion ofthe study is that the these library podcasts could beinterpreted as expressions of an ongoing movementfrom a traditional conveying role of the publiclibrarian, towards a more content producing role, inwhich the podcast is used as an strategic instrumentfor exposing the librarians expertise and for exertingliterary criticism.

This thesis examines talking books at public libraries. The thesis focuses on what the digital evolution has cometo mean in terms of Internet-based access to talking books. The survey is based on interviews with library staff and a socio-cultural theoretical perspective. The survey aims to examine the library's talking book function as a phenomenon in which cognitive, physical, communicative and temporal dimensions are considered. The survey demonstrates that the library staff associates talking books with goals concerning everyone's right to access to literature and reading and libraries intermediary role in this regard, which these often tied to broader public librari -es goals concerning the promotion of reading, democracy, accessibility and where the establishment of the service Egen nedladdning is understood from thoughts of greater, easier and more efficient access to talking books for the talking book reader, and as an opportunity for independence for the same. Physical talking books are disussedas a tool that can be used to establish and convey the talking book function in library premises. In terms o finformation dissemination and surrounding activities are made visible not least a network-based method and spontaneous meetings. Egen nedladdning and the app Legimus imparts opportunities for those expressing interestin the face of these, but older talking book readers can communicate a smaller interest in the use of these tools. Recording sessions for the service Egen nedladdning, and possible challenges in connection to these, are also takeninto account and also information and knowledge acquisition among librarians in the case of talking books. Also, the communication and meetings between the talking book readers and library staff are discussed, and the service Egen nedladdning impact on this question. The essay ends with a discussion in which the talking book function at public libraries is discussed based on themes of space, technology and literature brokering and where operational opportunities and challenges in this regard are outlined. This is a two years master’s thesis in Libraryand information science.

The aim of this study is to examine how norms about gender are constructed in the meeting with the library user as experienced by the librarian, with a focus on recommendation of books as a social practice. Questions that the study asks are if the librarians experience that norm critical notions are expressed in the meeting with the user, if the book recommendation as a social practice can strengthen and/or challenge norms and if the library as a room, what it contains and how it is structured, can affect the book recommendation as a social practice where norms are constructed or questioned. The study conducts interviews with six librarians who work with children’s literature, and parts of the interviews were done while walking through the children’s section at the participants libraries to respond to the question about how the room affects the book recommendation as a social practice. The theoretical framework that has been used consists of Connell’s theory about masculinity and Hirdman’s theory about the gender system and its gender contract. The results of the study shows that norms about gender are constructed in the book recommendation meeting with the library user, as experienced by the librarian, and it exists a gender contract at the library that contributes to reproduce a distinction between boys and girls. In the analysis a masculine reading hierarchy-model with three stages are presented, to understand how masculinity norms and the gender system affect boys reading habits, but also how the library room can affect it.

The purpose of this thesis is to compare international ideal competencies for Special Collections librarianship to the possibility to acquire these competencies as a student of library education or as a professional librarian with the care of special collections in a public library in Sweden today. The questions posed are: How are international ideal competencies concerning special collections looked upon in Swedish public libraries? How can students or professional librarians today acquire competences necessary for the work at hand in special collections? Suggested in this thesis is to emphasize the importance of understanding that handling special collections demands other skills and belongs to other practices than ordinary work in a public library. The major discrepancy with international ideal competencies consists in the lack of ways for education in the field of special collections for both students and professional librarians in Sweden today.

The purpous of this master’s thesis is to explore how the swedish public library evolved between 1890-1911, before the state implemented the library reform in 1912. The material used to cunduct the study concists mainly of texts published during the time frame of the thesis in the form of books, booklets and articles from Folkbiblioteksbladet, a journal dedicated to the subject of the swedish public library. Drawing upon Habermas theory of the structural transformation of the public sphere and Bourdieus theories about taste as social distinction and symbolic capital, the thesis seeks to show how the public participated in the evolvement of the public library and which aspects of society that contributed to the public library’s establishment as an institution. The findings are also discussed in relation to previous research of the history of the Swedish public library. In summary, the study shows that the public library evolved as part of a larger aim to educate the masses with help from what was seen as ”good” litterature. It also shows that even though the higher classes decided the premisses for public education and the public library, some of the ideas were shared by the working class despite their different political goals.

The purpose of this two years master´s thesis in Archive, Library and Information Museum science is to examine the ideas about children and childhood which have an influence on the storytime at public libraries. The material on which this thesis is based, is a methodbook which is aimed to develop the storytimes and those picture books that are recommend in the methodbook. The theoretical points of departure are discourse analysis and childhood sociology. The concepts of being and becoming are frequently used when analyzing the methodbook. Other theoretical points of departure are the combination of narratologi, semiotics and hermeneutics, which are also used when analyzing the picture books. The result indicates that the storytime, recommended in the methodbook, is based on the idea of a timeless culture of childhood - where the "modern child" including the media used today - is left out. Concepts as nostalgia and pedagogy are tightly connected. The childhood as it appears in the storytime is a locked pedagogical room.