The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to investigate which rolesthe mobile library has to its users in a small community in Sweden.To reach this purpose I have focused on the following two researchquestions:• Which are the different functions, social, cultural, educational orinformation-based, that the mobile library offers its users andwhich of these are used in reality?• What purposes are there for the mobile library and how it is usedby it’s visitors?To answer these questions I have interviewed four users of amobile library and I have held e-mail interviews with librarians incharge of a mobile library as well as the head of the department ofculture and peoples health in the community. As a base for myanalyse I have also used a pilot study which I performed earlier inthe spring of 2011.My theoretical framework is based on the model of the publiclibrary’s different roles made by Marianne Andersson and DorteSkot-Hansen.The result of this study show’s that a mobile library isn’t verydifferent from a permanently located public library. The fourdifferent functions all exist, wholly or partly, in the mobile library. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This essay is about the mobile library in three communities of a district. Interviews with the help of research questions are used as a data collection method to gather information on how the mobile library works, which possibilities for evolution it has to better satisfy their users’ needs and which place the mobile library occupies in its context to the main library and its branches. As a theoretical background the work of Andersson & Skot-Hansen is used to illuminate the mobile library’s different usages, determined by four centres, the centre of culture, the centre of knowledge, the centre of information and the centre of social interaction. Two of three communities will be buying new bookmobiles for the mobile library in 2018 and with the new equipment the mobile library will be able to offer additional services. The mobile library is no longer only an instrument to deliver books and other media, it grows to a multiroom with multiple opportunities, able to host cultural and educational events while offering digital services, information and a meeting place. Faced with closing down library branches the mobile library is either part of the centralisation process of the main library or part of the decentralisation process of the main library filling its own roll in the work towards its users. As part of the decentralisation process the mobile library is considered a library branch, not stationary but mobile, one of its many advantages in the work to deliver its services directly to users anywhere.

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to examine the roles of the mobile library in Västerås municipality in Sweden. The purpose is to gain understanding about the mobile library and its place in the local public library operation. The theoretical framework is the model for analysis of the local public library profile, produced by Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen. Qualitative interviews are put in comparison with the four overlapping categories included in said model: the role as a cultural centre, knowledge centre, information centre and social centre. The results show that each of the four roles was recognized to some degree, though the roles as cultural centre and social centre were somewhat prominent. The respondents mainly highlighted the lack of information technology and the limited physical space as the major holdbacks for development opportunities in all categories. The findings are discussed along with their relations to national and local policy documents.