This master’s thesis aims to study the practice of separating popular genres of fiction from the rest of the fiction stock, often seen at public libraries. The method being used is critical discourse analysis according to Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional conception of discourse. The textual dimension of this analysis is the book shelf itself and the sociocultural practice is the everyday practice at a public library of supplying and mediating books to the visitors. The main research question is: In what ways do the alternative shelf arrangements affect the sociocultural practice of mediating fiction to library visitors and to what degree has this practice, with its non-discoursive elements, cleared the path for shelf arrangements to become a natural part of the libraries? The question is answered by the analysis of the text and its different modalities, and the analysis of the discoursive practice where the interest has been the production and the consumption of the text. These two aspects of discourse are then contextualized in the sociocultural dimension. The result shows the picture of a public library undergoing major changes. Strained economy and a shift in the habits of reading fiction have forced the libraries to take influence by the commercial book stores, preferably the on-line ones. This thesis shows that the shelf arrangements of fiction are a part of the development for the public libraries in a more individualised, commercial direction.

Abstract Genre separation has been common for childrens and youth fiction in Swedish public libraries, but genrefication for adults is still under lively discussion. Fantasy literature is a good example of fiction that has actually been separated for children, young people and adults for about 30 years. It therefore serves as a good example in a study about fictional genre separations. The aim of this study is to investigate how librarians determine the genre of fantasy books, how they organize fantasy sections in libraries and how they argue about genre separation and subgenres of fantasy literature. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews with six librarians with responsibility for fantasy sections at six different large and medium-sized public libraries in Sweden. Gabriel Naudés ideas of how to arrange books in a library was used as a theoretical framework to analyse the empirical material. The results of this study show that there are a variety of ways to organize a fantasy section in a public library. It shows that genre separation for fantasy literature is still developing in the public libraries surveyed. It also shows that fantasy literature in its classical form is relatively easy to genrefy, while subgenres are a little bit more difficult. In addition, it appears that the argumentation about genre separations shows a mostly positive attitude towards these, and that these separations are a good tool for readers to find books. Finally, it shows that the user-friendly perspective is strong in the libraries surveyed, and that well-thought-out fantasy sections and genre separations increase interest in the literature that is highlighted.