The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of the public library in the district of Österåker during a period of 1958-1983. The main goals have been to identify the crucial events in the history of the library within their historical context and to analyse the factors that have been important for the development: financing, location, staffing, stock of books, book-lending level and different activities for children, youngsters and adults. The consideration has been taken to reasons and consequences of these events. The hermeneutic interpretation model of interaction between parts and wholes, between reasons and results is the basic method in this research which leans mainly upon local archives in Österåker. The public library in Österåker was established in 1952 as a fusion of previously existing small libraries: the parish library in Östra Ryd, the Labour Movement’s library and the temperance movement’s library. This public library, which was small and neglected in the fifties, developed to a relative big and modern cultural community centre in the seventies. The most important milestones in the development were: moving to Municipal Hall in 1955, employment of the very first professionally skilled librarian in1969, receiving of a Government subsidy for developing of regional libraries in 1970, moving to the larger premises in 1971 and moving to the permanent location in Folkets hus in 1978. The library fortune depended on the local conditions and the national politics, both constituting the framework for possibilities to grow and develop. The research shows that a good economy together with appropriate premises and skilled staff provides a good base for a successful development. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to describe the development of the most important libraries in Skövde, starting from 1830. We conclude our examination about 1940, when the municipal library has been active for almost ten years, and the libraries started by the temperance and working-class movements have been deposited at the municipal library. In order to explain this process we describe the development of the Swedish public library and its predecessors, such as reading societies and the popular national movements’ libraries, as a background and comparison to the early libraries in Skövde. We describe the most significant libraries that existed in Skövde during this period, starting with a reading society in 1830. We continue with a commercial lending library and a couple of popular national movements’ libraries, before we discuss the municipal library. The municipal library in Skövde opened quite late, almost 15 years after the decision in the municipal council. We examine what happened in the meantime, and introduce Major Eric Uggla who played an important part in this process. To explain his role in this development, we have done a simplified structure/actor analysis, based on a model by Lennart Lundquist, professor of political science. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to describe the library development in Sandviken, during a period from 1865 to 1945. I will mainly focus this examination on the two most significant libraries of the period; on one hand the library facilitated by the ironworks company, and on the other hand the library of the Workers’ Educational Association (ABF). This study is carried out within a theoretical framework consisting of the two concepts paternalism and the formative moment, as formulated by Lars Magnusson and Bo Rothstein, respectively. In order to explain the process the development in Sandviken is compared with the general history of the public libraries in Sweden, and specifically with the history of libraries owned by large industrial companies. The results of this study show that the library of the iron works company represents the strategy of paternalism, strongly associated with the Swedish bruk, or company town. However, the employers’ use of cultural and social reforms as a means of exercising control over the workforce, is challenged by the counter culture of the labour movement. In this case, the ABF library managed to grow and gain influence through its connections with the labour movement on the national level. This status made it possible for the ABF library to take advantage of the formative moment, and thus shape the future of the libraries in Sandviken.

The aim of our Master´s thesis is to investigate the development of the different libraries in the former communities of Flisby and Lofta during the former part of the twentieth century. We ask the following questions:How did the libraries in Flisby and Lofta develop between the years of 1905 and 1952?How can we understand the libraries’ dependency of funding of different kinds? We have used case study as a method, and we have adopted a source criticism approach. We have mainly used our local archives and among other things we have investigated various sorts of protocols, annual reports, auditor’s reports and the accounts that were sent to the Board of Education. We have also visited the Government Archives, located in Stockholm. We have worked with the theory of Geir Vestheim, the cultural/political triangle, but we have modified it so that we only use two of the three corners of this triangle, and these are the economical/political system and the producers of culture and the disseminators or mediators of culture. We use Vestheim’s model of the different fields of tension between the economical/political system and the mediators of culture as well. We do this in order to see how the different libraries and the people involved in their maintenance were dependant of various kinds of funding, and to see what kinds of roles the people running the libraries played. We have come to the conclusion that the field of tension has increased, as the governmental regulation has grown stronger.