This bachelor thesis examines public librarian’s views on collection development and selection censorship in the public libraries today and how they work to raise awareness so that it does not constrain the selection. The subject belongs to collection management in the public library field. The study aims to investigate the librarian’s perception of different pressures on Swedish public libraries collections today and where they come from. The three questions posed in this study are: what pressures and controversies can public librarian’s experience in their work with selection? Where and in what way does pressure on Swedish public libraries selection arise from, according to Jacobsen and Thorsviks model: from above, below or sideways? How does the public librarians rise awareness in the selection process to cope with subjective and outward pressure? The method is based on four interviews with operating public librarians, and their thoughts and experiences on the subject. The theory used in this thesis is a model by Dag I. Jacobsens and Jan Thorsvik, called Features for the three institutional pillars. It is used to trace where pressure originates from within an organization. Here it is applied to public libraries and the impact on the selection, studied from three perspectives; above, below and sideways. The results show that the selection is guided by democratic laws about diversity, laws against offensive content as well as libraries mission to purchase on demand. The librarians seldom or never experience any oppression, aggression or organized that challenge the libraries selection or censorship. The main pressures are of individual origin, they are library users that challenge both the librarian’s expertise and the selection principles. In the selection process librarians discuss that they are subjective beings and that they hence can affect the selection with their own involvement through subconscious values. Being aware of this process makes it less problematic. The librarians rarely have anything substantial to go by in the selection process, like a formal strategic media plan, it tends to be either inadequate to use, outdated or not practically useful. The informants for this study experience mediaplanning takes time and effort, at the same time they have less resources and time to do so. Which makes it problematic to examine and have quality selections, for example it could lead to oppression on the professional role of the librarian.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-82114 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Sandhu, Alice |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) |
| 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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