The purpose of this thesis work is to bring out the causes of public libraries preservation or phase-out of vinyl collections. The study in this thesis work makes a survey as a first step in figuring out what role vinyl record have at today’s public libraries as there is missing information about what the vinyl records changed status has meant for public libraries.What factors have been critical of what the public libraries have done or doing with their vinyl collections today? What role does the public library’s music responsible staff think the vinyl records have at the public library today?As a theoretic frame Taljas three different music perspective/repertoire at music libraries were used, the general education repertoire, the alternative repertoire, and the demand repertoire. The collection of the empirical material was collected with help of quantitative phone interviews. E-mails were sent to 107 public libraries asking them to take part in the study. Out of 58 replies 28 ended up participating in the study.The results showed that most libraries have had vinyl records. The factors that played a part in what the libraries had done with their vinyl collections were the following. Pro phase-out: cd records, less demand, lack of space, and move to new location.Pro preservation: cultural value, local value, and they have remained.According to the staff in charge of the music collection, the vinyl record has had a very small role in the libraries which will remain unchanged, but they do think that the vinyl record is an important upholder of culture.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the view of reading and reading promotion that emerges in the project presentations from the public libraries that the Swedish Arts Council granted money in 2012. We also wanted to examine how the libraries worked on promoting reading in these projects. To find this out, we used a directed content analysis and analyzed the material with the help of two different theories, one of the views of reading and one of the librarians role in mediation of literature. We found that the view of reading in these projects emphasizes that reading itself is important, the content and how to read is less important. For the non-readers new media can be a way into reading. To create joy of reading was the goal that most libraries expressed. The work with reading promotion was all about new ways of thinking and how to find new ways to reach the readers where they are. The methods could be traditional, like booktalks, or less traditional, like using tablets or joining readers in the forest.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how storytellersat the public library use the story-time topromote literature and libraries. Story-tellers ownpersonality and their own meaning of stories canaffect the story-time and the visitors view ofliterature and the library. Studies also show that agood story-time can affect the visitors which supportthe libraries in a positive way. Jofrid KarnerSmidt’s theory is used to analyze and discuss theresults. Four qualitative interviews are made withstory-tellers at public libraries. The results in thisthesis indicate that story-tellers are competent storytellersand distinguished promoters of literature andlibraries. Unfortunately the time the story-tellershave for doing the story-time as qualitative as theylike is not enough.

This bachelor thesis’ purpose is to investigate how purchase librarians work with foreign language collection management. Since about 15% of the citizens of Sweden are born abroad or have a foreign background, the subject of investigation becomes relevant because it touches a wide user group of the public library. Interviews were conducted with four librarians responsible for purchasing of foreign literature. The purpose of these interviews was to investigate which underlying strategies and thoughts are used as a basis for purchasing. Since the library act does not include guidelines regarding the content of the foreign literature collection, how is the literature chosen and to what purpose? As a theoretical framework a self-developed model was used to categorize the foreign literature into its different functions. The foreign literature was divided into two main categories; entertainment reading and literature with an informative purpose. To display the librarians room for interpretation factor in the purchasing of literature a theory from sociology studies was applied, the theory of room for maneuver. The findings in this paper have revealed that literature with the purpose to entertain was prioritized in the purchasing. Even though the libraries included multicultural activities in their organization, by prioritizing the entertainment literature the library tended to deprioritize the potential integration purpose of the literature. The paper also revealed that the individual responsible for the purchasing was left with a large room for interpretation, which meant that one individual had the responsibility to ensure that the literature was relevant and versatile enough for the user group.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the transition from SAB to DDC in the public libraries of Sigtuna.More specifically, it aims at investigating why the decision was made to adopt the DDC and how the system has been implemented. Particular attention is drawn to the difficulties and problems that have arisen while organising the libraries open shelves with DDC and to the ways in which the difficulties have been handled. These questions are examined through a pragmatic perspective on Knowledge Organization that focuses on the contexts and domains in which the classification system is used. The empirical material is drawn from qualitative interviews with the former director of Sigtuna public libraries and with the in-charge of the catalogue department.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine which role public libraries play or could play within bibliotherapy. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five librarians who, in one way or another have experienced bibliotherapy activities. Further, we have interviewed two treatment assistants and one counsellor, who have cooperated with the librarians, to get their view.   We have used the following research questions: Which bibliotherapeutic activities, if any, are pursued in public libraries in Sweden, and how do they look upon bibliotherapy? What role do public libraries play/could play within bibliotherapy?   Ever since the term bibliotherapy was coined in the beginning of the twentieth century, the definition has been under debate. We have identified four main subjects of discussion. They concern the client, the text, the bibliotherapist and the question whether individual or group activities are to prefer. These subjects of discussion are used as a tool for analysing the results of the interviews as to our first question. We have modified Margaret Monroe’s Bibliotherapeutic Model for Library Service and this model is used as theoretical framework when analysing our second question.   The result shows that the librarians define, and look upon bibliotherapy in different ways. They have mainly experienced bibliotherapy as a group activity. For the future, they envision various opportunities of development, one of which differs from the rest – the individual bibliotherapy service. We have identified a set of alternative activities in which the public library could play a role within bibliotherapy.

Examensarbete.

Since a few years back, the term Bildung seems to be having a renaissance in Sweden, and it furthermore, in the new Swedish Libraries Act 2013, became an objective for the libraries to “promote interest in Bildung”. As the act neither defines the term Bildung nor describes how the libraries are to promote interest in it, the purpose of this study is to examine this objective. Since previous research on Bildung and public libraries is sparse, when the adjacent term “folkbildning” is not included, this study is delimited to public libraries. To investigate the objective of the public libraries to promote interest in Bildung, two preparatory works of the Swedish Library Act 2013 were analyzed. The main themes of these documents were identified using qualitative content analysis. These themes were then interpreted based on the term Bildung. A definition of this multifaceted term was made in the theoretical part of this study. The history of the term, focusing on the period of the Enlightenment and the Romantic era, was accounted for, and central ideas and philosophical traditions identified. Seminal thinkers being, among others, Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm Humboldt and Friedrich Hegel. The main result of this study is that the fulfillment of the principal objectives of the public libraries creates favorable conditions for the objective to promote interest in Bildung. The challenges to this is increased economic and politic influence or control, or that the intrinsic values of Bildung is not upheld.

This focus group conversation on how some publiclibraries in the Gothenburg area have beendeveloped to meet the needs of future, over timefrom the 1960’s to the present planning of a newlibrary, shows that older common sense notions stillhave an considerable influence even in todaysplanning. The closer you get to the present andplanning for the future, more use of discursive toolslike theories and modeling are talked about ashelpful in clarifying communication and structuringhow and what to do. The study use a socioculturalstance on collective remembering by Wertsch and andialogical approach on focus groups by Markováand Linell.

Den här uppsatsens syfte är att belysa HBTQ arbete på folkbibliotek i Norrlands glesbygd, hur de arbetar och vad som påverkar det arbetet. För att göra detta så används semistrukturerade intervjuer som metod. I det första kapitlet introduceras ämnet och syftet. Queerteori lyfts upp och några viktiga begrepp definieras. Det andra kapitlet behandlar tidigare forskning, det tredje kapitlet metod. I det femte kapitlet presenteras resultatet och i det sjätte kapitlet kommer slutsatser och föreslag på fortsatt forskning. Sist kommer innehållsförteckning och bilagor. Syftet uppfylls genom en analys av de berättelser som framkommer vid intervjuerna. Respondenternas berättelser visar på en bredd av erfarenheter, arbete med regnbågshyllor och regnbågsflaggor på böckerna. Flera aspekter av deras arbete belyses, bestånd, bemötande, programverksamhet, utbildning och fortbildning. Faktorerna som påverkar HBTQ arbetet varierar mellan de olika respondenterna. Gemensamt för alla är brist på tid och pengar. Satsningar från högre instanser ger möjlighet till god påverkan. Men intresset för HBTQ arbete från omgivningen har stor påverkan på huruvida satsningarna kan ha någon effekt.