The purpose of this master’s thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the municipal library of Västervik. There have been four previous libraries and our examination starts in 1859 with the foundation of a parish library. The other forerunners were a working-class movement library and two libraries in the International Orders of Good Templars. Before the merger of the libraries there were discussions in the municipal council, among the working-class movement and in the IOGT. The municipal library was inaugurated in 1908. Algot Johansson, a worker, became the first librarian and he was very important for the development of the municipal library. We conclude our examination 1945, when Algot Johansson retired. As a background and comparison we describe the development of libraries in Sweden and the national policies. As a comparison, we can see, among other things, that Västervik was early with a merger to a municipal library, but late with free loans and subsidies from the state. The national policy from 1930 has been very important for the municipal library. To analyse the origin and development of the municipal library in Västervik we used a theory by Magnus Torstensson, about two perspectives of structures and actors. / Uppsatsnivå: D