A trend since the early 90’s has been that some public libraries offer a special shelf containing environmental information to the community, but it seems as though the subject has been overlooked by the literature and the science community. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study how three independent public libraries work with environmental information that is made available to the community. The following questions were addressed: 1) Which arguments can be found as to why the libraries offer this activity? 2) How does the environmental work at the public libraries look and what does it contain of? 3) Are there any similarities or differences in this work between the three libraries?To answer these questions interviews with librarians were carried out; observations were made to complement the interviews. Kathryn Miller’s theory “the libraries green role” (2010) was used to identify which roles the libraries played in the local community. Miller suggests that there are two possible roles that the library can play in order to contribute to the greening of the community: that of an environmental leader and/or environmental educator. The results showed that the libraries environmental work differed to some extent but was largely similar. The arguments behind the activity were found to be democracy and education. The libraries were in larger extent identified to act as an environmental educator than an environmental leader. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Green libraries are a relatively small but expanding part of the library world, and usually indicates a library that includes ecological sustainability in their inner or outer practices. These libraries make information about the environment available to the community. At the time of this study, the scientific material on Green Libraries is very practically oriented and often focused on what the library can do for its community, with no literature on the users’ perspective. The purpose of this bachelor's thesis was, thus, to study the users’ awareness and use of the green library services. The following questions were addressed: How have users become aware of the ecologically sustainable services in the library? How do library users use the provided ecologically sustainable services? Interviews and complementary observations were carried out to answer these questions, and a deductive thematic analysis was conducted upon the collected material. Wilbur Schramm's (1973) five causes of selective exposure were applied to identify how the green services reach the library users. The results showed that the green services were often noted in passing while the user was otherwise engaged in looking for information or services closer to their interests. Only one out of twenty individuals had taken part of the information provided by flipping through the provided books. The users sought information about the environment through other sources. However the users are positive to the fact that the library offers these services as the library is a place of information within the local community.

Introduction. This thesis focuses on the concept of green libraries with the aim to understand how the public library can promote climate action. Since green libraries for long have been absent in Sweden, the study’s objective is to examine green libraries in an international context to address what features four German public libraries show that green libraries can fulfill; and in a national context to investigate how green libraries can apply to the Swedish public library’s role in society. Method. Semi-structured interviews with librarians at four German green libraries were conducted. The interviews were recorded, and the transcripts was analyzed thematically. In addition to the interviews, the material also consists of documents of different genres used to analyze the Swedish perspective. Analysis. The analytical framework uses a theoretical model specially designed to be used in the analysis, called the re-intermediary-model. The model demonstrates the potential of the public library as a social infrastructure in addressing societal issues, such as the issue of climate change. The analysis maps the empirical material and previous research about green libraries to show which library features it fits into. Additionally, the mapped empirical material helps identify the opportunities for green libraries in Sweden. Results. The analysis identifies several areas of interest. The results show that the German green libraries fit into the features of the theoretical model. The libraries’ green activities and services function as local meeting places; they inspire users to act with more environmental awareness; green libraries educate about climate change and ways to promote climate action in daily life; and they offer creative spaces to let the users experience sustainability. The results also show that there are many opportunities for green libraries to be applied in Sweden. Many aspects of green libraries and climate action conform to the Swedish Library Act, foremost the legislation requiring municipalities and county councils to adopt library plans which enables politicians to include climate strategies in the plans and public libraries in local climate strategies. Swedish libraries could devote themselves to conveying knowledge and information about climate change in several ways, for example through urban gardening, media and information literacy, repair cafés and lectures. Conclusion. Findings reveal that the public library can support civic abilities to participate in climate action. The view of the public library as a space for living and not only a place of books enables the library to convey information and knowledge through various activities and services. The public library’s local connection and inclusive target group give capacity to bring people closer to complex information about climate change, which could benefit climate action and promote community resilience. The thesis also show that Swedish public libraries have a potential site for addressing the issue of climate change and promote climate action.  This is a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.