This thesis is a qualitative examination of main libraries’ work with accessible media. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight librarians working towards children and youth, the purpose of this study is to examine the opportunities and challenges presented by new digital aspects in accessible media. This was accomplished by reviewing the informants’ statements through a self-developed tool of analysis. This tool mirrored the purpose of the study and was developed by compiling the results of previous studies into themes. These themes were then further developed in concurrence with transcriptions of the interviews.The findings of the study were that the librarians were aware that readers with a need for accessible media are invisible, but lack the time to apply sufficient directed operations to make them visible. However, this invisibility also worked through a new mobile app for distributing talking books, Legimus, to normalize the need for accessible media. Thus the work often centered around a balancing act between making these readers visible and not distinguishing them as outliers. In part because of new digital features, there was a lack of direct contact with members of the intended group. This was bridged by contacting and/or collaborating with a third party like relatives or other professionals. Physical titles available within accessible media are limited but because of Legimus this was not the case for talking books. The group’s status as especially prioritized was emphasized by all informants, although they often felt time lacking to properly apply that priority.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa intervjustudie var att få en bättre bild av hur skolbibliotekarier på grundskolor i Umeå kommun arbetar med tillgängliga medier. Fem skolbibliotekarier intervjuades om hur de arbetade gentemotelevgrupperna, hur de upplevde att behovet av tillgängliga medier såg ut och om de anpassade sitt arbetssätt gentemot olika målgrupper för tillgängliga medier. De inspelade intervjuerna transkriberades, och bearbetades med hjälp av tematisk analys. Resultatet visade att skolbibliotekariernas arbete med tillgängliga medier präglas av; ett engagemang att hjälpa elever med läsnedsättningar; samarbete med lärare och specialpedagoger; och ett individuellt snarare än gruppbaserat bemötande av eleverna. Skolbibliotekarierna upplevde att situationen för elever med behov av tillgängliga medier är ojämlik som resultat av olika ekonomiska resurser hos skolorna. Bakomliggande orsaker till denna ojämlikhet diskuterades. Det konstaterades att den digitala utvecklingenhar lett till positiva utvecklingar för skolbibliotekariernas arbete, men att den också presenterat nya problem som kräver IT-kompetens av  skolbibliotekarien. Slutligen konstaterades att behovet av tillgängliga medier inte ökat, men att en rad faktorer resulterat i ökad användning. Detinsamlade materialet analyserades också utifrån Anders Øroms sex bibliotekarieidentiteter, och det konstaterades att skolbibliotekarierna i sitt arbete med tillgängliga medier i hög grad präglas av socialarbetareidentiteten, med inslag av kulturförmedlaridentiteten ochinformationsförmedlaridentiteten.

Despite an increase in the number of scientific studies on talking books being done in the Library and Information Science field, there is a lack of research focusing on talking books in Sami, the language of the Swedish indigenous minority. This study aims to increase the knowledge about how access to talking books in the Sami language is being facilitated for pupils in Swedish schools. The Actor-Network Theory is used to describe and analyse how actors interact and connect with each other and how the resulting network affects students’ access to talking books. The ANT-analysis, which is based on data collected in qualitative interviews and from document analysis, showed that pupils’ access to talking books in Sami is not being facilitated by neither school librarians nor mother tongue teachers. The study identified the main challenges to be limited resources, but also steering documents omitting to mention Sami with disabilities and a lack of knowledge about talking books in other languages than Swedish. The study suggests that the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, MTM, in their education material should encourage librarians and mother tongue teachers to mention talking books in other languages during meetings with pupils.

This thesis is about library users with dyslexia and their use of available media. Dyslexia is a disability that involves difficulties in reading and writing. To be able to read is important in this technical society for both education and work. Many adults with dyslexia often tend to avoid reading, which affect other areas in their life. Many adults do not use library resources in order to improve their reading and they might not know what the library has to offer, while young users often get the help they need through school and libraries. The focus will be on two groups of users, adults and younger users, as teenagers. This study analyses the difference between how experiences from libraries and what they can provide may differ from one group to the other and what are the differences in access to adequate resources with respect to the user’s age. The purpose of this thesis is to see how available media as talking books make persons with dyslexia to read more and better. The thesis aim is to display how they can use the libraries more and how the library can help them improve their reading and to compare the differences between teenagers and adults’ users. The study will use documents from different countries to look upon differences between countries. The focus will be on the user’s perspective. Their experience of libraries and available media, how libraries can evolve and how marketing of libraries can be possible.