Since the launch of United Nations Agenda 2030, sustainable development has been a goal of the Swedish government. Furthermore, Sweden has vowed to be second to none in taking advantage of the potential benefits of digital technology. Both goals can be construed as policy imperatives, and as such, they have implications for the publicly financed library sector. The aim of this master’s thesis is to clarify the meaning of sustainable development and digitalisation in a public library context in order to facilitate a critical discussion within LIS of these two imperatives. Firstly, the thesis attempts to determine, by using Quentin Skinner’s historical method, what official policy documents published by the government and National Library of Sweden want to express by using sustainable development and digitalisation with regard to the library sector. Secondly, it tries to discern whether the two policy objectives are in accord, or in conflict, with one another. The analysis shows that both policy imperatives are in concord with established activities performed by libraries, and, furthermore, may strengthen the library sector as a positive societal force. However, in order to convey this impression, features that may run counter to the stated goals are disregarded, or downplayed. The study points to a mixed result regarding potential conflicts between the two policy imperatives. On the one hand, digitalisation undermines environmental sustainability, on the other hand, it strengthens economic sustainability. In the case of social sustainability, the impacts of digitalisation can be both beneficial and detrimental.

I den här uppsatsen försöker jag med hjälp av diskursanalytiska verktyg belysa vilka bakomliggande krafter det är som driver Sveriges digitalisering av kulturarvet. Genom att analysera svenska kulturpolitiska offentliga dokument, transkriptioner av en föreläsning och ett panelsamtal, samt två debattinlägg, letade jag efter det i litteraraturen beskrivna ”policyimperativet”, som har identifierats i den norska kulturpolitiska digitaliseringskontexten. Policyimperativets uttryck identifierades, och det visar sig i huvudsak förekomma inom bibliotekssektorns diskurs, som i sin tur inspirerat arkivssektorns diskurs. Museisektorn använder sig av policyimperativet i tal och i debattsammanhang, men det förekom inte nämnvärt i sektorns offentliga dokument som ingick i analysen.  Trots att policyimperativet delvis uttrycks gemensamt av ABM-institutionerna, så möts inte arkiv, bibliotek och museum i den talade diskursen, det indikerar att de tre institutionerna inte konvergerar i den svenska digitala kontexten. / In this study I use the tools of discourse analysis to shed light on the underlying forces that drive the digitalisation of Sweden’s cultural heritage. By analysing Swedish public domain culture-political documents, transcriptions of a lecture and panel session, and two newspaper opinion articles, I search for the so-called “policy imperative” which has been identified in the context of cultural politics about Norway’s digitalisation process.  Expressions of this policy imperative were indeed found, and appeared primarily within the discourse of the library sector which in turn inspired that of the archival sector. The museum sector makes use of the policy imperative in the spoken word and in the context of debates, but it was not noticeably present in those public documents from the museum sector which were analysed here. Despite the fact that the policy imperative sees a degree of common expression by LAM-institutions they do not meet in the spoken discourse, indicating that the three disciplines are not converging in the Swedish digital context.