The purpose of this master thesis is to study the correlation and meaning of current ideas and practice at the public library of Gothenburg. This was done by comparing the visions and ideas expressed by the library through the library plan, with how the daily practice looks. For the theoretical framework organizational theory is used and research data was collected both from public documents and through observations. The public library of Gothenburg were chosen for the study because of it's newly renovated facilities. The idea is that these facilities make a suitable study object of the current ideas and priorities of the public Swedish library in general.The results show that the public library practice in Sweden still rests on the original public library ideas such as offering information for free and treating every user as equal. It also shows the importance of legitimizing new activities by relating them to more familiar ingredients. When developing the organization it's critical for the library to remain recognizable as a public library to avoid damaging the brand name. The new facilities of the public library of Gothenburg do well to correspond to the ideas and visions expressed in the library plan. Generous opening hours and accessible facilities seem to help in attracting many visitors. Some questions are raised regardning the lack of dedicated reading rooms, when it is stated by the library that the meeting between the user and the information still should be regarded as the central aspect of the library practice. Room for improvment is also seen regarding the ambition of offering more ways of communication and participation. On the whole the realization of the library plan is deemed to be well on it's way, which is seen as a positive example of the much debated usefulness of the library plans. However, it is also noted in the study how some of the wide ambitions sometimes risks conflicting with each other.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-253485 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Dahlén, Martin |
| 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 ; 662 |
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