The main purpose of this Bachelor´s thesis is to investigate the visions chief librarians have for their public libraries. The world around us and our way of living is changing as the society is changing ever more rapidly. This evolvement also influences the public library, its role for society and individuals, its activities and its design. The question is how the public library can face these changes and what function and role it can get and make for itself in the future. Through qualitative interviews with five chief librarians our aim is to answer the main question of this thesis: What are the visions that chief librarians on public libraries have for the public library´s future? This study also contain the role the chief librarians give the public library of today and what they mean is necessary for their visions to be achieved. Our theoretical choice fell upon Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Jochumsen and Skot-Hansens at this time new scientific model that reflect the library in relation to the concepts place, relations and space. The results showed that the chief librarians have a lot of visions. They’re not particularly revolutionary but more like a further development of the activities and role of the public library of today. The library must continue to be a meeting-place, a common ground for democracy and a central place in the local society with wide ranging activities for all citizens. Greater collaboration and integration plus being a creative platform for the users are also part of their visions. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Master thesis is to describe why and how public librariesuse the social networks Facebook and Twitter. The focus is to study whatbrought about their use, how the work is carried out, ideas and objectivesbehind the use and what libraries actually convey on the networks. Themethodology is twofold: semi-structured interviews with responsiblepersonnel at four Swedish public libraries, and an ethnographic contentanalysis of four months of the libraries' status updates and tweets onFacebook and Twitter. The theoretical framework consists of a model forthe roles of the public library in society, and of discourses about thepublic library in media.Results indicate that social networks are used to market, make accessibleand inform of the library's resources and services. Furthermore, networksare used to communicate/interact with followers and to inspire people toread. We also detect a tutoring trait. Libraries also view social networksas a meeting place. What libraries do on the networks can be seen as anonline interpretation of traditional library goals. All four spaces from themodel for the new library – Inspiration, Learning, Meeting andPerformative – were represented in the objectives expressed in theinterviews. In what is conveyed on the networks focus lay on Inspirationand Meeting. Social networks also act as a place to market the physicallibrary. From a discourse perspective the study suggests that librariesexpress disidentification and demonstrate ability to remain open both todifferent media formats and different methods for library servicesdelivery. / Program: Bibliotekarie