In 2017, the City of Gothenburg implemented its first more-open unstaffed self-service library station. The following year, the first more-open library was implemented. The purpose of this thesis has been to increase the understanding of more-open library services and to investigate how they are presented in public documents and by representatives of the City of Gothenburg's cultural administration and culture committee. The theoretical framework consists of elements from neo-institutional organisational theory. The starting point is the view of organisations as part of an institutional context where the understanding of organisational development and change is analysed by looking at factors surrounding the organisation. Concepts such as legitimacy, organisational isomorphism and organisational fields are central to the work. The study has been conducted through a mixed-method approach and consists of a document study of public documents and a semi-structured interview study with three library managers, the chairperson for the culture committee and an official from the culture administration. The material has then been analysed through a qualitative content analysis where themes have been identified in the data collection. The study concludes that more-open library services are considered a complement to regular library activities. Above all, more-open library services are justified by increased accessibility to libraries and culture for members of the public. Even though not everyone can use more-open libraries, the more-open services are considered to increase the total accessibility in the city. The study has found some perceived prerequisites for more-open libraries, which can be summarized as follows: a suitable library facility, a quiet local environment with the library placed within a certain context, time for planning activities, technical resources, a pedagogical approach, and independent users who can handle self-service technique. More-open library services can both gain legitimacy and be legitimized with reference to increased availability and efficient use of tax funds. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-447380 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Kaan, Cecilia |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| 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 | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 817 |
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