This master's thesis’ purpose is to contribute with knowledge about access to public library service in sparsely-populated areas in Southern Sweden. Previous similar studies have focused on Northern Sweden, leaving a lack of knowledge regarding the southern parts of the country. The study takes place in Blekinge county. Three questions are posed: How are the public library’s roles perceived in control documents regarding library service and rural policy? What roles do public library service play in the lives of participants in rural Blekinge, depending on whether they live in the northern forestal area or the southern coastal area? What, according to the participants, contributes to enabling and hindering library use? The theoretical framework derived from Skot-Hansen and Andersson’s model of four public library roles, Jochumsen et. al. 's model of four rooms at public libraries and Buckland’s model of information barriers. The methods of data collection were semi structured interviews and qualitative content analysis of documents. The results show that the perception of public library access depends on where in the county the participants live. In general, participants from the sparsely-populated rural forestal northern Blekinge perceive public libraries as less accessible than participants from the rural southern coastal area. The participants express a lack of access to public transport, which in return affects accessibility to public libraries and increases dependency on car transport. The analysis of regional and municipal control documents confirms that there is a widespread problem with unequal service availability in rural Blekinge county, including public library service.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-26364 |
Date | January 2021 |
Creators | Ågren, Rebecca |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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