This bachelor thesis examines public librarian’s views on collection development and selection censorship in the public libraries today and how they work to raise awareness so that it does not constrain the selection. The subject belongs to collection management in the public library field. The study aims to investigate the librarian’s perception of different pressures on Swedish public libraries collections today and where they come from. The three questions posed in this study are: what pressures and controversies can public librarian’s experience in their work with selection? Where and in what way does pressure on Swedish public libraries selection arise from, according to Jacobsen and Thorsviks model: from above, below or sideways? How does the public librarians rise awareness in the selection process to cope with subjective and outward pressure? The method is based on four interviews with operating public librarians, and their thoughts and experiences on the subject. The theory used in this thesis is a model by Dag I. Jacobsens and Jan Thorsvik, called Features for the three institutional pillars. It is used to trace where pressure originates from within an organization. Here it is applied to public libraries and the impact on the selection, studied from three perspectives; above, below and sideways. The results show that the selection is guided by democratic laws about diversity, laws against offensive content as well as libraries mission to purchase on demand. The librarians seldom or never experience any oppression, aggression or organized that challenge the libraries selection or censorship. The main pressures are of individual origin, they are library users that challenge both the librarian’s expertise and the selection principles. In the selection process librarians discuss that they are subjective beings and that they hence can affect the selection with their own involvement through subconscious values. Being aware of this process makes it less problematic. The librarians rarely have anything substantial to go by in the selection process, like a formal strategic media plan, it tends to be either inadequate to use, outdated or not practically useful. The informants for this study experience mediaplanning takes time and effort, at the same time they have less resources and time to do so. Which makes it problematic to examine and have quality selections, for example it could lead to oppression on the professional role of the librarian.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how city librariesmaintain the intellectual freedom in their Internet service. Thediscussion about Internet filters has been quiet in Sweden forseveral years, so I wanted to see if there had been an increased useof filters. I also wanted to see if the city libraries regulated theInternet service in another way. I sent a survey to 100 libraries andgot answer from 83. To explain what intellectual freedom is, I usedStuart Hamilton’s theory about intellectual freedom in the librarycontext. My result was that it had been an increased use of Internetfilters but still the use was rather small. Most of the libraries in thestudy used policies or rules to regulate Internet access on topicslike pornography or racism. Most of the libraries also had theircomputers in an open way, and that could lead to a self censoredinformation seeking for the user. A solution is to have thecomputers in a more hidden way, so the user could have a morefree access to the Internet. My conclusion is that the most librariesdid hamper the intellectual freedom with their use of filter, policiesand/or the placement of the computers. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how librarians in a Swedish public library work with collection management related intellectual freedom and Shoemaker & Vos (2009) gatekeeping levels. Intellectual freedom is the right to express, explore, consider and access ideas and information without restriction. Intellectual freedom is a United Nations human rights. Working with collection management, while trying to offer a variety of information and opinions without violating any societal groups may create ethical work dilemmas for librarians. Although regulated in Swedish legislation and local guidelines as media management plans, there is a risk collection management results in limiting information for the library user. The librarian becomes the gatekeeper; the person standing between information and the users.   This empirical material was gathered through semistructured qualitative interviews with librarians in a public library. The Library Manager and one of the librarians at the Freedom of Expression Library (Dawit Isaak-library) were also interviewed for additional perspectives. The empirical material was analyzed using Kurt Lewins (1947) gatekeeping theory and Schoemaker & Vos (2009) different gatekeeping levels as a theoretical analytical framework.   The results show that although the meaning of intellectual freedom was known, there was a lack of a common understanding of the concept. The media management plan is not an active guideline and the majority of librarians talked about collection management as a ”gut feeling”. The study shows ”gut feeling” easily results in limitations on an individual level. The study also shows that the gatekeeper role now rests with the user and not the librarian.

This thesis examines how librarians, in their own point of view, can and do handle influences on their daily work routines. The main focus is on whether the librarians’ experiences suggest that these influences lead to self-censorship in how media and information is acquired, handled and distributed. The contrast between the librari-ans’ actual and ideal situations, regarding their perceived freedom to act, are also examined. Seven librarians from different fields and different parts of Sweden are questioned using semi-structured interviews. The results are analyzed using models of self-censorship from Bar-Tal and Beckman as well as an influential article on selection and censorship in libraries from Asheim. A closer reading of the librarians’ stories finds four recurring themes: Perceived autonomy and freedom, Motives and context, Examples of influence and self-censorship and Ideals and reailty. The themes are analyzed in depth, with key quotes from the librarians serving as illustrations, using the aforementioned theoretical models as tools. From these analyses, the following conclusions are drawn: Preceptions of autonomy and workload in-fluence how librarians view their freedom to propose new ideas and handle media and information in accordance with their ideals. There also seems to exist a discrepancy regarding the librarians’ expected flexibility with rules and routines, leading to confusion among the librarians. Furthermore, disinclinations towards discussion in the workplace are common when the topics are controversial, such as the removal of racist material, and attempts at discussion are often ignored. Lastly, proximity to the end users also influence the librarians, leading to an increased risk of bias in selection and weeding processes. Together these things influence how librarians cope with management of collections and activities, as well as how they treat colleagues and end users, in the context of self-censorship. The conclusions, as well as their effects on librarians, libraries and society as a whole, are then discussed. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.