The purpose of this thesis is to explore what possibilities Swedish public library has to work with and promote integration. The possibilities are examined on the basis of internal requirements of integration, the role of public library in the civil society and its policy documents. Further, the thesis examines what Swedish National library politics could contribute to this particular field. The experience of integration politics shows that a genuine commitment from all parts of the society is required in order to build an integrated society. The part of a society that public libraries are closest to and have the greatest impact on is undoubtedly the civil society. Within this research I have highlighted the changes that should be made in our society in order to achieve the goal of integration, as well as the opportunities that our public libraries should take in order to efficiently work towards these changes. If the work is to be more effective, a personal commitment as well as targeted investments done by librarians are necessary. Public library’s regulations express the importance of fighting against segregation, as well as the importance of making the cultural heritage of minorities a part of the common cultural heritage, and creating the opportunities for people to meet and get inspired by each other. This Research reveals that what is expressed in documents does not always have an impact on what happens in the reality and that there is an uncertainty when it comes to the function of public library and its power of influence. Opposite to what has been said, this study also proves that there are genuine enthusiasts there, the driving forces, who are working for a positive development and changes on the front.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate if the mobile library has a similar role as the public library. To study this further we intend to examine the value and function of the mobile library. Answers are sought to the following questions: Can the mobile library be seen as a public library in a smaller scale? How do the users experience the value and function of the mobile library? What does the library staff think of the value and function of the mobile library for the users? What would the consequences be if the service of the mobile libraries would not exist? The method used was qualitative interviews. The groups of respondents are mobile library users and library staff. The theories used include Anderson and Skot-Hansen’s model of the public library’s local profile. This model is used to analyze the results. The result of the study shows that all groups of respondents are of the opinion that the mobile library has a significant value and function in many ways.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well. When put in relation to the material from the two small town libraries, the following aspects emerge as dominant: the library as a ”third place”, the library as a low-intensive meetingplace, the library as a space for inclusiveness and belongingness – and in a perhaps slightly more indirect way also the library as a space for civic librarianship (in a Swedish sense) and learning aspects. The ways in which the library as social space is described can to a relatively large extent be related to a communicative discourse or civil society, although in some aspects also to the state and market discourses.

The aim of this thesis was to examine how role players experiences libraries and if the libraries are or can be an arena for activities that involves role play. A public library exists for everyone, but could nevertheless be viewed as a female sphere where women both borrow more books and visit the libraries program activities to a larger extent, compared to men. I asked the question whether men’s reason for choosing a different venue for information and culture was related to the libraries not being able to satisfy their needs. The theory of the thesis was Dorte Skot-Hansen, Casper Rasmussen Hvenegaard and Henrik Jochumsens model that states that the libraries can have four different functions and act as a venue for meetings, knowledge, inspiration and experiences. The chosen method was semi-structured interviews. I interviewed six male role players in order to study how they perceive the function of today’s public libraries and aimed to find out how the libraries could improve to meet the needs of the role players. The result shows that the four functions currently do not function particularly well according to the target group. The role players had, however, both needs and desires regarding future activities at libraries. The conclusion is that libraries could change both what literature and cultural activities they offer. If the libraries change this according to the needs of the target group they would be an attractive place for this male target group.

This thesis examines how library employees experience the library as a meeting place. Our questions are: What effect has the concept of a "library as a meeting-place" for library staff?How do they see the library as a meeting place? How do they see their workplace as a venue for meetings? The respondents interviewed work in public libraries. We were inspired by a cultural geographic theory that we re-designed. The following divisions were made in order to give the work a definitive structure:The "mental space"The library as a meeting place on a global and universal level;The "conceived space"Librarians and planners' thinking on the specific library as a meeting place;The "living space"How library staff perceive that the library is used as a meeting place in reality.In our analysis, we use a phenomenographic qualitative interpretive methodology. Phenomenography concerns the differences and variation of a phenomenon. In our case, this is how the library staff experiences the library as a meeting place. The result of our interviews gives us indications that the majority of respondents think the library is a meeting place for visitors (from the local community). It appears the library, as a venue, is used for many kinds of meetings. There are the meetings between visitors – but also meetings within the physical premises or concerning organising the library itself. We found that our respondents see the library as a meeting place from three different angles: from a societal perspective, an individual perspective and a library perspective.

The bachelor thesis examines conceptions behind the Swedish public librarian’s opinions of the public library as a meeting place. The study uses the critical discourse analysis, developed by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, to analyze a focus group interview. The discourse analysis identifies four themes in the empirical material: the imagined arena of the meeting place, the behaviour in the meeting place, the meeting place’s librarian and the polemic against the meeting place. Within the themes an antagonistic struggle is identified between a democratic, an individualistic and an organizational discourse. The three discourses strive to define the public library and its librarian. As a result, a degree of ambiguity can be found in the public librarian’s conception of the idea of the public library as a meeting place. The thesis further discusses how the polemic attitude in the empirical material could possibly be linked to the idea of the library as a meeting place founded in a local political sphere, rather than to the theories in library- and information science. The thesis finally identifies the current research on low-intensive meeting places in library- and information science as a possible solution to the ambiguity in the public library regarding the value of the meeting placeaspect.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to gain insight into themeaning of the mobile library for its users by investigatingwho the users are, how they use the mobile library, why theyuse the mobile library and what the users want from the bookbus service. The methods used are observations, surveystudy and qualitative interviews.The theoretical framework of the study is based onAndersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s model of the public librarywith its four different library profiles, together with PierreBourdieu´s lifestyle theory where habitus and the concept ofcultural capital are used to analyze the role of the book busin people’s lives.My conclusion is that the mobile library is very important toits users since reading is an important part of their lives andit gives them easy access to books of several genres. Themobile library also functions as a meeting place in the localcommunity and creates a link between urban and rural areas. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of my essay is to study the current debate on public library as a meeting place in the Swedish daily press. I have examined how the meeting function is used and how it is perceived and what it might mean to the public library. Through a selection process, I chose 18 relevant newspaper articles from the year 2006 to 2012. By implementing a content analysis, three themes were distinguished; “the meeting place as a place to reside on”, “the meeting place as an inclusion” and “the meeting place as a culture and activity house” I have used Andersson, Scot-Hansen and Rabers theoretical models of the library's roles for my analysis. My study shows that the library's function as a meeting place is appreciated by the majority of the people. The library facilities are used for socialization as well as for the individual to be at peace. Many library users find social interaction through the cultural activities. The results indicate a development towards a library with sofas, cafeterias and scenes. The literature, however, has a secondary role in the modern library. Idea stores and hybrid library occurs in collaboration with other recreational activities to generate local hot spots. Ideologically, the library tends to give the market what it wants; it’s a populist strategy to ensure the library's benefit to the society. But the library´s social centers also remain a strong position among the library users. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This Bachelor ́s thesis is about the conversations and meetings that take place in the mobile library. The research questions will try to answer: What do the staff talk about with each other, what conversations do the staff engage in with their users and what do the users talk about amongst themselves? The thesis main question is trying to answer of what is characteristic for the mobile library ́s conversations and meetings. Is the mobile library as a meetingplace any different in comparison with the city library? Focus lies on the eveningtours of the mobile library and excludes those tours that service schools and learning-centers. The intent is to capture the users that take advantage of the mobile library ́s services in their leisuretime. Methods used are observations on the eveningtours of the bus and qualitative interviews with the staff of the mobile library. The theoretical framework is Andersson and Skot-Hansens model of the public library ́s four different profiles. The authors have distinguished areas of use in libraries containing of a cultural-center, a knowledge-center, an information-center and a social center. The result of the study shows that the mobile library is an important meetingplace for it ́s users. The conversations and meetings that occur are not merely those of service to their users but also meetings and conversations on a more personal level. The mobile library is a place where users can socialize with the staff but also meet their neighbours and friends. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what ideas there are about the future role of the public libraries in society, what challenges the public libraries may face and how the public libraries will continue to be a place to meet. The future of the public libraries has been, and still is, a discussed topic and many believe that public libraries have an obvious place in society. The thesis focuses on library plans from the ten largest municipalities in Sweden. The theory used to analyze the source material in the study is The Four Space Model made by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot‐Hansen. This model consists of four “spaces”, learning, meeting, inspiration and performative space that represents different aspects of how to manage a library, these spaces were more or less represented in the library plans. The results of the thesis showed that the library is a popular meeting place and that the public library has an important role, as an institution, to play in the society. Results also showed that cooperation between the libraries in the same municipality, but also cooperation with public libraries in other municipalities is important for the future.