In these days we can witness a growing number of combined school and public libraries in Sweden. It can be explained as an economy measure or as an attempt to develop the library work. The aim of this thesis is to picture how working in combined libraries affects high school librarians’ own apprehensions of their professional identity. The results are based on in-depth interviews made with four high school librarians, working not only towards the students but also the public. By using a hermeneutic method, my attempt has been to construe the interviewee’s remarks and in that way analyse how the librarians themselves apprehend their professional roles and identities. The theories of the Danish library and information scientists Anders Ørom and Trine Schreiber have been used as analysis tools. A comprehensive summary of already existing studies in this field of interest is given, and is to be considered as a framework to which this thesis’ results are to be seen. The empiric data reveal several different opinions, and by using the theories of Ørom and Schreiber I have made the following conclusions. Two professional identities have been indicated; the teaching school librarian and the traditional cultural intermediary librarian. They both seem to include a strong feeling of service-mindedness. In addition, a third tendency to an indistinct and split identity can be perceived. Despite the lack of conformity that this third identity suggests, the interviewees give the expression that the two main identities cooperate and enrich one another.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-19981 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Malm, Sara |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap / Bibliotekshögskolan, University of Borås/Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) |
| 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 |
| Relation | Kandidatuppsats, ; 2010:28 |
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