The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine and analyze the discourse concerning a new public library in Stockholm. The paper further discusses how this discourse corresponds with what is written about public libraries in a number of national and international documents. To do this I have utilized the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. By using some of their instruments I have established the discourse around a number of keywords. I then use these keywords to see if and how they appear in the documents. My conclusion is that this discourse is concerned with the library as a center of knowledge and that the individual user is of particular interest. By comparing the discourse with what is sad in the documents I found many similarities. The documents portray the public library as a center of knowledge as well, but they also put forward there quality as a cultural center. Further the documents do not show the same interest in the individual user. Hence the discourse concerning the new public library in Stockholm points to a somewhat different view on the role of the public library. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The objective of this Bachelor’s thesis is to investigate how the public library in Luleå has set about implementing an alternative classification system for its children's books section and to explore why this was done. We wanted to investigate both how they have adapted the new system to the children's own way of seeking information and the library personnel's experience of using the new shelving system. We have done seven interviews to answer these questions and our choice of literature is intended to put the process of change into a wider context. The answers show that the library was dissatisfied with the former system and have instead expressed a desire to shift the focus of their classification system to their users. A significant factor behind the change was that they wanted to make children the basis of the new system. Here, they have instigated a change to the whole children's section and this new system is founded upon children's behaviour with regard to searching for information. The broad subject groupings have been given names that the children themselves use when they ask for books and, in order to facilitate the actual finding of the books on the shelves, the books have easily-recognisable symbols on the spine. According to our research, the staff in Luleå has found that both the users and they themselves are pleased with the new system, although an official evaluation has yet to be undertaken. We conclude that the advantages of the alternative systems outweigh the disadvantages. / Uppsatsnivå: C

By examining newspaper articles from two different timeperiods in a public library’s life, specifically the main citylibrary of Gothenburg 1964-68 and 2004-2015, thismaster’s thesis studies the discourse of library practice aswell as its societal role during the building and re-buildingof the library. The empirical material is examined byapplying the discourse theory and method of ErnestoLaclau and Chantal Mouffe. With this methodology wealso aim to analyze how the power is distributed betweenthe different roles that emerge depending on in what waythey speak about or is being spoken of in the material.In the analysis of the material, we have identified severalmore or less dominant discourses that construct certain,and often contradictory, views on the city library’s practiceand role in society. The major discourses that emergedin the material during the 1960’s were the book discourseand the cultural centre discourse. The book discoursepromotes traditional and authoritarian views of themediation and conservation of printed, quality books aswell as being associated with strong ideals of enlightenmentand education. The culture centre discoursepromotes a wide library practice, entailing many differentcultural and political activities as well as a wide range ofpeople. The book discourse can be seen all the waythrough the 2000’s, but the later period is dominated bythe information mediation discourse that places the userand its needs at the core of the library’s mission.

The institutional identity of libraries have been the subject of discussion for quite some time in the library community. With the renovation of several city libraries comes the opportunity to investigate the impact of this discussion on the practices of real public libraries. This Bachelor thesis investigates the program guide of Göteborg city library since its reopening in 2014 with the goal of extracting some sort of library identity. The thesis uses a discourse analytical approach to investigate the various types of discourse present in the material to extract an identity. The most prominent discourses present in the material are the educational discourse and the discourse of cultivation where the discourse of cultivation is the most dominant one. The discourse of cultivation motivates its activities through recreational aspects while the discourse of education motivates its activities by highlighting the use-value of attending its activities. The study finds that Göteborg city library presents itself as a cultural institution that ―sells‖ the service of cultivation, this is, however, not without problems and occasionally clashes with either the missions given to the library or the perceptions of the public.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att förklara Luleå stad/kommuns biblioteksverksamhet mellan åren 1930 – 1982. Hur påverkades biblioteksverksamheten i Luleå stad/kommun av nationella politiska beslut och styrdokument? På vilket sätt karaktäriserades integrationsprocessen när biblioteksverksamheten skulle organiseras enhetligt i Luleå stad/kommun? Fokus för denna granskning är huvudbibliotek, stadsbiblioteket i Luleå som också fungerade som centralbibliotek för länet, vilket senare kallades för länsbibliotek. Teoretiskt perspektiv som används är Ingemar Norrlids integrationism som används för att mäta graden av decentralisering i politiska system. Texten har en översiktlig, deskriptiv karaktär med inslag av analys och komparation. Biblioteksverksamheten förändrades under den undersökta perioden från att vara relativt fristående från kommun för att knytas närmre till både kommun och stat, genom att dess verksamhet blev beroende av statsunderstöd. Förändringsprocessen pågick som intensivast runt åren efter 1930 och åren efter 1965. Under 1970-talet sker omorganisationer där ledordet är decentralisering. Samtidigt ses en rationalisering och byråkratisering av verksamheten.

The aim of this paper is to investigate who the visitors are at a children's department at amain library in a larger municipality, and for what purpose they use it. We discuss: Is therea difference between various user groups, and if so, how do they differ'? Which library rolesdoes the children's department have? Does the children's department serve as a local libraryfor those who live in the immediate surroundings or as a main library for the whole municipality?The paper is based on a user survey performed in the spring of 1996 at the City Library ofGothenburg. 417 visitors and five staff members were interviewed.The children's department is used by various groups of people, from young children to seniorcitizens. The library roles are, among other things, an independent learning center and formaleducation support center. The children's department functions both as a local library anda main library.

Voluntary organisations provided the first consumer guidance in Sweden. The government'sinterest in the question started during the second world war and has ever since increased.Since the 1970's the local authorities, with support from the community, have played animportant roll in consumer policy work. Due to the economic recession of recent years theappropriation to consumer guidance work has been cut down. The work has been rationalisedand libraries have more frequently been used to spread consumer information.In Stockholm the municipal has been responsible for local consumer information since the1940's. Co-operation with the library of Stockholm has occurred in different forms. Todaythe purpose with the co-operation is to rationalise the consumer guidance work and to makethe information more available to the inhabitants of Stockholm.

This paper describes the development of direct and indirect service at the former Gothen­burg city library. This was during this period of time not the public library of the town, but a scientific library mostly serving the college, although also open to the public. Furthermore the services offered in Gothenburg are compared with those of the two old Swedish university libraries in Uppsala and Lund. The investigated direct serviceforms are "making material available", "guidance", and "localities". The indirect service areas are "the catalogue" and "the personnel and their competence".The conclusion is that the differences weren't that big and that Gothenburg city library was a modern library providing about the same services as you could find in Uppsala and Lund. In some instances Gothenburg city library also seems to have provided better service. This is especially true concerning user education where they offered courses already in 1939 which perhaps made them first out in Sweden.

This paper aims to investigate how Helsingborg’s city library’s visi-tors feel about computer games being available for lending and in which way computer gamers see Helsingborg’s city library as a resource. This was examined first with a study of 100 of the library’s visitors and then with five interviews with computer gamers and an interview with the librarian responsible for purchasing games.The study showed that most visitors were neutral to having games at the library and of the ones that were not neutral many more were positive than negative. Of the five gamers who were inter-viewed, there were several who had borrowed games in the past. Although all the gamers appre-ciated the opportunity of games at the library, they did not see the library as an obvious resource.The conclusion of the study is that computer games are an appreciated opportunity that can tempt new visitors to the library and that games can renew the library’s offerings and profile. / Program: Bibliotekarie

In this Master we have studied classification system and alternative arrangements of books in a public library. The public libraries in Sweden use the SAB classification system. This system was created nearly a hundred years ago in order to suit the librarians and the Swedish society at the time. Today many library users find the system difficult to understand. This and other factors have inspired a number of libraries to arrange books in an alternative and more user-friendly way. We chose Jönköping public library to study their alternative arrangement of fiction books for children and youth. The purpose was to find out why and how the new alternative arrangement of books was done and where the inspiration behind the changes came from. We also wanted to know how the new shelf system had been perceived by the children and the personal staff. We made interviews with three librarians in the library and a questionnaire to the children who visited the library. In order to get a theoretical background we studied classification and alternative shelf systems in literature and in a few Masters. It seems that the main purpose behind the alternative arrangements in Jönköping public library was to make the library more user-friendly and self-instructive. In both interviews and questionnaire the respondents gave a positive picture of the new shelf-system. / Uppsatsnivå: D