This exploratory bachelor’s thesis aims to develop a better understanding of an underdeveloped area of research, namely the impact of an pandemic on Swedish public libraries and how they manage and cope with the effects of such a crisis. In doing so the study uses the ongoing global spread of the new disease covid-19 as a case. To be able to reason about the libraries capacities of coping with the effects related to the so called ”coronacrisis” the study draws on the notions of resilience and its related concept of measure, social capital. Through a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with seven public library directors the thesis shows that all libraries in the study has been affected by the crisis in a more or less same degree. The libraries also cope with it in a similar matter using capacities as communication, adaptivity, creativity and commitment. Furthermore the thesis shows that the library directors prioritize the safety of the library staff and users as well as to keep the libraries open during the crisis. The libraries as a whole primarily prioritize to reach out to the public with literature through new or developed means and services. The study also reveals areas of potential development for the studied public libraries both during and after the coronacrisis, where the digital outreach to the public and digital usage by the library staff is the most essential.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-23442 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Hänninen, Alexander |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT |
| 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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