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The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how the professional identity of public librarians is created and shaped in connection with the digitization of society. The data collection method used, has been semi-structured interviews where five Swedish public librarians were asked questions regarding their experiences and perceptions of the increasingly digital nature of the public librarian profession, and how it has come to affect their work. The collected data has been analyzed within the socio-cultural perspective in which learning is seen as a constantly ongoing social process and where knowledge is gained through interaction with others. A further theoretical starting point for this study, was Anders Ørom's theory of librarians' professional identities. Three main themes were identified during the analysis. The first theme addresses public librarians' positive attitudes and experiences related to digitization and digital technology. The second theme addresses their negative attitudes and experiences related to digitization and digital technology. The third and final theme addresses their professional identity. The findings show that the public librarian profession is increasingly characterized by digital technical tasks and tools and that knowledge within this area, is considered important according to the public librarians. The respondents who experience the greatest impact of the increasingly digital technical nature of the profession, express concern regarding how a lack of knowledge in this area, can lead to feelings of inadequacy as many public library users, often expect the librarians to possess a great deal of digital technical competence. The majority of the study's respondents highlight the social aspects of the profession, particularly the social interactions with public library users, as a crucial part of their work.

The aim of this master's thesis is to contribute knowledge on how the ideal applicant is constructed through subjective qualifications requested in job advertisements targeting public librarians, and how these constructions relate to a broader societal context. The empirical material consists of 40 job advertisements published online between December 2023 and February 2024, and is analysed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and his three-dimensional model. The research questions, formulated in accordance with the dimensions text, discursive practice, and social practice, are: What personal qualities are requested in the advertisements and how are these expressed linguistically? What discourses are manifested through the subjective qualifications requested in today’s job advertisements? And: How can these discourses be understood in relation to contemporary demands and expectations on the profession? The textual analysis shows that the ideal applicant is constructed through a broad range of subjective qualifications, often expressed with a high degree of obligation. Five discourses underpinning these qualifications were identified: the relational discourse, the structure-oriented discourse, the development-oriented discourse, the pedagogical discourse, and the monitoring discourse. The results of the discursive practice analysis imply that the discourses are influenced by external texts, indicating a significant intertextual presence in the material. Lastly, the results from the social practice analysis indicate that the discourses correspond to different social, economic, digital, and ideological factors surrounding the profession. A notable result is that both the relational discourse and structure-oriented discourse can be seen as dominant, suggesting that the public librarian is positioned between two conflicting ideologies.

Artificial intelligence has gone from simply being a theoretical thought to rapidly affecting different areas of our lives. AI has in different ways been discussed in the library field, but mostly in regards to academic writing or different ways AI-technology can be used in library work. What has not been studied in depth is the views and opinions that librarians have on AI-litterature. This study aims to examine how librarians view and take into consideration literary quality when it comes to literary selection in the library. The study also aims to research how the librarians view AI-generated literature and how AI might come to change the way literature is selected. To do this interviews with eight different librarians from eight libraries around Sweden has been done. During these interviews the librarians were asked questions regarding quality, AI and literary selection as well as discussing three text excerpts that were sent to the interviewees beforehand. This has then been analyzed through Bourdieu's definitions of field and capital, as well as Garvins definitions of quality and Beardsleys categories of aesthetic value. The study showed that the librarians had similar ways of selecting literature for the library and that they all prioritized what the library's users wanted to read instead of only having what is considered to be high quality literature. The study also showed that literary quality is hard to define. Regarding the level of knowledge the librarians had of AI it differed among them as some had more knowledge than others, as was the view of literature that’s generated with the help of an AI. Based upon our findings AI has yet to reach a level of craftsmanship that would make it possible to produce high-quality literature. On the other hand economical reasons might push established and well-respected publishers to replace human labour with AI.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the Swedish library trade journal Biblioteksbladet represents stress amongst Swedish public librarians under a 20-year period, from 2004 to 2024, via the use of discourse analysis. The study aims to answer what sort of discourses associated with stress for public librarians emerge in Biblioteksbladet during that period, which actors are involved in the construction of perceived public librarians’ stress and how these discourses have changed over time. After data collection, review, and codification, 86 texts containing articles and opinion pieces were selected as the study’s empirical material. The material was then analysed via the employment of analytical tools established by Mouffe and Laclau, chains of equivalence, nodal points, “hegemony” and “antagonism”, as well as concepts from previous research: vocational awe, resilience narratives and mission creep. Five main themes, which were also classified as the nodal points of the stress discourse, were formed from the findings: Stress related to the workplace, stress related to turmoil, economical stress as well as professional ambiguity and future stress. The results, which were put into context using previous research and relevant trade-union reports, paint a picture of a discourse that has been dominated by actors such as library managers and occupational experts with a slow increase in different actors, such as trade-union representatives and public librarians, at a later stage. A difference between the portrayal of stress as well as the number of articles published has been found between the pre-2015 and post-2015 period, with the appearance of the first trade-union reports on librarians’ stress as a clear landmark moment. While the early discourse has looked upon stress for public librarians mostly from an intra-library perspective the post-2015 period shows a much broader range of reasons as well as solutions to stress. Furthermore, this study has found several in

Good knowledge of literature is a desirable competence among children's librarians, and it is said to require constant environmental scanning. At the same time, there is often a lack of time and opportunity for skills development in this area. The aim of this thesis is to examine how children's librarians build up their knowledge of literature, what significance it has and what factors affect them in their environmental scanning of children's literature. Empirical data were produced through interviews with five librarians working with children aged 0-12 as their target audience. The data were analyzed by employing Bates’ model of four different information-seeking modes. The results show that all four modes are vital for environmental scanning. The importance of literature knowledge is confirmed in descriptions of how they use their literature knowledge. One conclusion is that children's librarians' knowledge of literature is based more on personal and professional experience of children's literature than on literary studies. Bibliotekstjänst and colleagues are important channels for environmental scanning. Another conclusion is that children as a target audience demands more of an active – directed information seeking than adults.

Att belysa folkbibliotekariens egna erfarenheter av det läsfrämjande arbete med läsande förebilder som metod är relevant för att få en djupare förståelse för vilken betydelse arbetssättet har för att främja barns och ungas läsning. Insikt om detta kan utgöra ett underlag för utvärdering av arbetssättet utifrån ett professionellt perspektiv och öka medvetenheten om metodens relevans. Det är en kvalitativ intervjustudie vars resultat är insamlat från fyra intervjuer med folkbibliotekarier som är verksamma inom samarbeten med läsande förebilder. För att tolka resultatet så använder studien två skilda teorier; Bourdieus teori om kulturell reproduktion och Banduras sociala inlärningsteori. Det framgick bland annat att läsande förebilder är en metod med stark tilltro och det fanns en uppfattning om att vuxna i barns vardag är betydelsefulla läsande förebilder. En läsande förebild är framförallt någon som barnet vill identifiera sid med. Filckor ansågs ha bättre förutsättningar att se sig själva som läsare, varvid en uppfattning var att målgruppen pojkar bör prioriteras i det läsfrämjande arbetet. Betoningen lades dock vid att flickor inte får glömmas bort., To highlight the public librarian's own experience of working with reading role models as a type of reading promotion method is relevant when you to get a deeper understanding of the type of impact that the method has on children's and young adults reading. Insight into this can form a basis for evaluating the working method from a professional perspective and increase awareness of the method's relevance. It is a qualitative interview study whose results are collected from four interviews with public librarians active in collaborations with reading role models. To interpret the results the study uses two different theories; Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction and Bandura's social learning theory. Among other things, it emerge that reading role models is a method with strong trust and there was a perception that adults in children's everyday life are important reading role models. A reading role model is above all someone with whom the child wants to identify. Girls were considered to have better conditions to see themselves as readers, whereas one opinion was that the target group boys should be prioritized in the work to promote reading. However, emphasis was placed on the fact that girls must not be forgotten.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur bibliotekarier upplever tryggheten på sin arbetsplats och hur eventuell otrygghet kan påverka dem. Det är en kvalitativ intervjustudie bestående av semistrukturerade intervjuer för att komma så nära bibliotekariernas personliga erfarenhet som möjligt. Intervjuerna analyseras sedan tematiskt med grund i teorier om imagined victimisation och psykologisk trygghet. Studien visar att bibliotekarierna känner sig trygga, men att det ibland sker händelser som gör dem osäkra och otrygga. Det upptäcks också att det finns viss osäkerhet kring handlingsplaner och vilka åtgärder som kan vidtas vid otrygga händelser.

Changes in society are reflected in librarians' daily work which means they have to continue to develop their competencies after their education in library and information science. Continuing professional development (CPD) via digital resources is a contemporary form of CPD that comes with both opportunities and limitations. The aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge about public librarians' experience with CPD with focus on CPD via digital resources. The study has a focus on Digiteket, which is a digital learning platform that is relatively unexplored. The theoretical framework of the study consists of the concepts of CPD and professional learning experience from which the theoretical tools have been drawn. The theoretical tools consist of a table of CPD methods and activities and also personas, which are used in the analysis. The empirical material of the study consists of semi structured interviews with five public librarians. The result shows that Digiteket is used in a variety of ways and to varying extent and that there are limitations with the plattform. Other digital resources are common for CPD and time and resources are two adversities for CPD opportunities. Self-directed and informal methods and activities were the most common, and the curious ad hoc learner persona corresponded the most with the respondents, which was shown in the analysis and conclusions. Another conclusion was that Digiteket was not the most used resource for CPD among the respondents.

Rapporter från fackorganisationer och vetenskapliga studier visar att bibliotekarier är en stressad yrkesgrupp. Denna studie undersöker hur folkbibliotekarier beskriver sina upplevelser av stress främst i möten med användare och hur denna stress hanteras av folkbibliotekarierna. Åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med folkbibliotekarier genomfördes, varpå det empiriska resultatet analyserades utifrån rollstressteorin som myntat sav Kahn et al. (1964). Syftet med studien är att bidra till en djupare förståelse för folkbibliotekariers stress, och hur dessa upplevelser och hantering av stress kan förstås utifrån rollstressteorin. De mest framträdande stressfaktorerna i användarmöten är kommunikationssvårigheter, gränssättning i service och när många användare efterfrågar hjälp samtidigt. Studiens resultat visar även att arbetsuppgifter utanför användarmöten såsom arbete med bibliotekens uppdrag, planering av aktiviteter och program, beståndsarbete pekas av över hälften av folkbibliotekarierna ut som mer stressande än användarmöten. Resultatet visar även att folkbibliotekarierna har flera metoder för att hantera stress. Analysen av det empiriska resultatet visar på indikationer av rollstress i form av rollkonflikt, rolloklarhet och rollöverbelastning., Reports from trade unions and scientific studies show that librarians are a stressed professional group. This study examines how public librarians describe their experiences of stress when meeting patrons and how this stress is managed by the public librarians. Eight semi-structured interviews with public librarians were conducted, after which the results was analyzed based on the role stress theory coined by Kahn et al. (1964). The purpose of the study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of public librarians' experiences of stress, and how this can be understood by using role stress theory. The results of the study show that the most prominent stress factors in relation to patrons are communication difficulties, setting boundaries in service and when many patrons request help at the same time. The results of the study also show that, for example, work regarding planning and the library's missions is experienced by many of the public librarians as more stressful than working with patrons.The results also show that the public librarians use several methods to manage stress. The analysis of the empirical material also shows indications of role stress in terms of role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload.

The aim of this study is to see how users of the public library positions librarians with their competencies and to compare this to librarians' own thoughts about their competencies. The research questions were as follows 1) How do the public librarians, who participated in our study, view their competencies? 2) How do users, who participated in our study, view the competencies of public librarians? 3) Are there any similarities or differences between the users and the librarians views about the public librarians competencies? The method is semi-structured interviews with six librarians and five users. The data was then analyzed with positioning theory. The results show that users positioned librarians as a profession characterized by pleasant and service minded professionals with useful literature knowledge. The librarians positioned themselves in a profession where assisting their users is the main goal, that every competence matters because one never know who one is meeting and what their needs might be.

This bachelor’s thesis deals with how the spatiality of libraries can correlate with instances of disorderly user behaviors. The fact that public libraries are among the types that are most prone to disorder, while Kriminalvården’s (the Swedish correctional service’s) librarians rarely experience similar problematic behaviors, could be said to illustrate a balancing act between anarchy and a manic need for control; where the most ideal compromise is, is based both upon personal values and the situation at hand. To compare different reasonings about the room and the users, public librarians’ perspectives on factors of architecture and design have been contrasted with how librarians within Kriminalvården view the matter. The study has mainly been carried out using qualitative semi-structured interviews as well as a supplementary questionnaire. Operationalized factors of spatial influence in the form of categorized opposites (accessible/inaccessible, comfortable/repellent, visible/obscured, enabling/forbidding), which were identified early on and have guided the investigation, are used both implicitly in the interview guides and the questionnaire as well as explicitly in reading for the thematic analysis. The terms “ideal type”, “heterotopia”, and “panopticon/panopticism” are used theoretically to deepen the understanding of the essay’s collected data: their suitability emerges in the nuances of what libraries can/should be; what happens when you bring together multiple functions in one space; as well as how control through surveillance can be understood and applied in library spaces. The results show several differences at the operational level, but also similarities in terms of the librarian’s approach and view on problematic factors. Public libraries often have many functions (that do not always interact harmoniously) and offer more freedom, which risks their orderliness, while Kriminalvårdens library operations (which consists almost exclusively of literature, Denna kandidatuppsats hanterar hur biblioteks spatiala utformning kan korrelera med förekomster av ”biblioteksstök”. Att folkbibliotek är bland de mest stök-utsatta typerna, medan Kriminalvårdens bibliotekarier sällan upplever liknande problembeteenden, skulle kunna sägas illustrera en balansakt mellan anarki och kontrollmani; var den mest idealiska kompromissen ligger bygger på personliga värderingar och vad situationen kräver. För att jämföra olika resonemang kring rummet och användarna har folkbibliotekariers perspektiv på arkitektoniska och designmässiga faktorer satts i kontrast mot hur bibliotekarier inom Kriminalvården ser på saken. Studien har genomförts främst med hjälp av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en kompletterande enkät. Operationaliseringar av spatiala påverkansfaktorer i form av kategoriserade motpoler (tillgängligt/svårtillgängligt, komfortabelt/avvisande, överblickbart/skymt, tillåtande/hindrande), som i förtid identifierats och styrt undersökningen, har använts både implicit i intervjuguiderna samt enkäten och explicit i utläsningen för den tematiska analysen. Begreppen ”idealtyp”, ”heterotopi”, och ”panoptikon/panopticism” används teoretiskt för att fördjupa förståelsen av uppsatsens empiri: deras lämplighet framkommer i nyanserandet av vad bibliotek kan/bör vara; effekten av att sammanföra flera användningsområden i samma utrymme; samt hur kontroll genom övervakning kan förstås och appliceras i biblioteksutrymmen. Resultatet visar på flera skillnader på verksamhetsnivå men även likheter i fråga om bibliotekariernas förhållningssätt och syn på problematiska faktorer. Folkbibliotek har ofta många funktioner (som inte alltid samspelar harmoniskt) och erbjuder mer frihet vilket riskerar kosta ordning, medan Kriminalvårdens biblioteksverksamhet (som utgörs närmast uteslutande av litteraturförmedling) har mer ordning – men på bekostnad av användarnas frihet. Studiens utfall kan användas som kunskapsgrund för praktisk planerin

Time and temporality have received little attention when it comes to work in the public libraries, above all in a Swedish context. Trying to fill this gap the aim of this study was to explore how librarians working within the public libraries of Gothenburg experienced time and temporality in relation to different work tasks and systems. The study was guided by a theoretical framework with focus on the sociology of time and was designed as a cross-sectional study witha qualitative approach. Empirical data was produced through semi structured interviews with seven librarians working at different public libraries in Gothenburg. Qualitative content analysis was used for analysing the empirical data. The result showed that the librarian's time was fragmented with task sbeing prioritised according to principles of economic time, i.e., tasks that were possible to determine in time and led to a clear outcome. The result also showed that tasks that worked according to non-economic principles dominated among the tasks the librarians wished to have more time for, i.e., tasks that were difficult to determine in time and required continuity, for example reading promotion tasks. However, this does not mean that the librarians did not engage in reading promotion work at all. The study also drew attention to the time-consuming work the librarians devoted to help the library visitors with information and communication technology. This work was understood as a side effect of technological acceleration.

Utgångspunkten för denna kandidatuppsats är att analysera hur folkbiblioteken verkar för samhällets demokratiska utveckling genom sina programverksamheter. De värden som utgör ramen för de demokratiska samhällena ligger även till grund för beskrivningen av de allmänna bibliotekens uppdrag. I detta ingår att folkbiblioteken ska verka för utvecklingen av det demokratiska samhället och verka kompensatoriskt för grupper som av olika skäl har svårare att hävda sig i samhället. Det finns en spänning mellan de värden som ligger till grund för den representativa demokratin (negativ frihet) och dem som gäller folkbibliotekariers kompensatoriska arbete (positiv frihet), särskilt med programverksamheter. Syftet med detta arbete är att utforska hur folkbibliotekarier uppfattar programverksamheternas betydelse för att utveckla det demokratiska samhället, inställningen till neutralitet och programverksamheternas roll i den sociala vändningen. Undersökningen utgår från forskning om den sociala vändningen inom folkbiblioteken (Audunson 2020) och folkbibliotekens möjligheter att fungera som en offentlig sfär (Larsen 2021). Den granskar också hur centrala värden för biblioteksprofessionen hamnar i konflikt när bibliotekarier stödjer utsatta grupper (Gibson et al., 2017, Seal 2016) och arbetar kompensatoriskt med de prioriterade grupperna (Hansson 2011), samt hur folkbibliotekarier arbetar proaktivt genom pluralistisk agonism och samverkar med lokala externa aktörer för sina användare (Rivano Eckerdal 2018). Den kvalitativa undersökningen görs genom intervjuer med folkbibliotekarier, vars utsagor tematiserats. Resultaten analyseras sedan genom att undersöka dem genom en modifierad typologi över olika demokratiska former (Lund & Schultz Nybacka 2021). Slutsatserna är att undersökningen bekräftar den sociala vändningen men att folkbibliotekarierna inte helt uppfattar programverksamheternas möjligheter för folkbiblioteket som en offentlig sfär, då diskussion och debatt saknas. Folk, The basis of this bachelor thesis is to analyse how public libraries work for the development of democracy in society, through their programmes. The values that form the framework of democratic societies also form the basis for describing the mission of public libraries. This includes that public libraries should work for the development of democratic society and work compensatory for groups that, for various reasons, find it more difficult to assert themselves in society. There is a tension between the values underlying representative democracy (negative freedom) and those of the compensatory work (positive freedom) of public librarians, especially with programme activities. The purpose of this work is to explore how public librarians perceive the importance of program activities in developing democratic society, the attitude to neutrality and the role of program activities in the social turn. The study is based on research on the social turn within public libraries (Audunson 2020) and the possibilities of public libraries to function as a public sphere (Larsen 2021). It also examines how central values for the library profession come into conflict when librarians support vulnerable groups (Gibson et al. 2017, Seal 2016) and work compensatory with the priority groups (Hansson 2011), as well as how public librarians work proactively through pluralistic agonism and interact with local external actors for their users (Rivano Eckerdal 2018). The qualitative research is carried out through interviews with public librarians, whose statements have been thematized. The results are then analyzed by examining them through a modified typology of different democratic forms (Lund & Schultz Nybacka 2021). The conclusions are that the study confirms the social turn but that public librarians do not fully perceive the possibilities of the program activities for the public library as a public sphere, as discussion and debate are lacking. Public librarians emphasize the equal va

The purpose of this study is to conduct a quantitative overview of public librarians' genre knowledge of fantasy and examine how the genre is presented and linked to literature mediation activities. The fantasy genre is somewhat undefined and previous studies show that there is no common or accepted definition of the genre fantasy. Depending on a librarians' knowledge of the genre, the genre's location and exposure in the library are greatly affected. This study is based on the following questions: How do the librarians' genre knowledge affect literature mediating activities at the library and how is the genre presented in the library? What characteristics and distinctive features do public librarians in Västra Götaland County associate with the genre of fantasy? An online survey was conducted with 90 librarians. The analysis of the answers recorded from the survey is based on theories about literature mediation and genre knowledge. Our results show that librarians have a general knowledge of fantasy based on their answers concerning what characterizes the genre through distinctive features and elements. In our analysis, we conclude that genres can "borrow" each other's attributes, elements and features without a book or other media necessarily being classified as a particular genre. It was also concluded that the librarians based on their genre knowledge can implement fantasy elements in their literature and reading promotion activities.

This thesis is about the definition of the public librarian’s profession and how they are affected by stress. Six public librarians were interviewed over the video-chat program zoom during the 2021-summer. It concluded that the democratic mission was not as clear to every participant and there was some confusion as to how they were supposed to work with it. There were two major stresses reaffirmed among the participants: namely role ambiguity and lack of professional autonomy.

In recent years it has been discussed in the media that library users often request help and support from librarians regarding for example digital tasks and services that relate to government agencies and commercial companies. The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge of public librarians' views regarding their mission and approaches to help and support to library users in the library. The study focuses on all types of help and support that library users request in addition to the library's traditional services (which are here understood as services clearly related to the library collection, e.g. reference work and user instruction). In order to examine this matter eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with public librarians at libraries in the municipality of Gothenburg. The transcripts from the interviews were then analyzed using qualitative content analysis guided and structured by a practice theoretical framework. In accordance with the practice theoretical framework, help and support to library users is considered as a practice. The result show that the library's mission in terms of help and support to library users can be seen both as narrow, primarily comprising reference work and as wide including all kinds of information, and that the participants help and support library users in different ways and with a wide range of questions and matters, within the wide description of the mission.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to develop knowledge on librarians’ perceptions and experiences of working at a public library during the covid-19 pandemic. The lack of research in this area motivates this thesis. Six librarians from four different public libraries in Gothenburg were interviewed through semi-structured interviews. The empirical data was analyzed through a practice theoretical framework comprising three dimensions of practice referred to as the cultural-discursive, the social-political, and the material-economic dimensions. The result of the study shows that the librarians’ perceptions and experiences of working during the pandemic was that it was difficult, challenging, and that it contributed new knowledge. The difficulties and challenges are based on the fact that the librarians, due to the restrictions, no longer can help the visitors like they used to. In addition, the library as an open space is no longer available for the visitors, which is a problem since many people rely on the libraries offering computers and a place where one can study or just spend time. To be forced to deny the visitors help is the biggest difference according to the librarians. Further, the result shows that the pandemic enabled new ways of working and contributed to highlight the importance of public libraries.

The purpose of this master thesis is to study public librarians’ approach to working for participation and inclusion in the literacy context specifically aimed for children and young people with disabilities. The theoretical framework draws on the critical disability theory developed by Devlin and Pothier and Goodley and Runswick-Cole. Furthermore Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory developed over time by Bronfenbrenner. In total five semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with public librarians from five different libraries around Sweden. The results reveal that the public librarians have different strategies and approaches when it comes to creating inclusion and participation for the target group in reading promotion activities. They collaborate with other occupational categories and through marketing to reach the target group and to customize reading promotion activities. In some cases, librarians use trial and error as an approach. In order to increase accessibility for the target group, it is proposed that public librarians need support in different forms and at different levels, adequate continuous staff development as well as organizational stability.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra till ökad kunskap om hur en specialsamling som äppelhyllan kan vara till hjälp för bibliotekarier att övervinna de barriärer som kan uppkomma i det dagliga arbetet med barn och unga med funktionsvariation. Uppsatsen baseras på fyra kvalitativa intervjuer av folkbibliotekarier som aktivt arbetar med utvecklingen av äppelhyllan vid deras stadsbibliotek. Resultatet visar att äppelhyllan som specialsamling är en svår samling att arbeta med dels på grund av den varierande målgruppen som har olika behov, dels för att det krävs mycket kunskap hos bibliotekarierna för att utveckla en äppelhylla. Fortbildning och samarbete är viktiga förutsättningar för att skapa en lyckad äppelhylla som möter målgruppens behov.

The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how librarians in Swedish public- and academic libraries approach the much-disputed question regarding the acquisition of controversial materials. This study is based on six semi-structured interviews with seven different librarians working in either public- or academic libraries in the south of Sweden, all assigned with the task of acquiring new materials to their library collection. We have analyzed the subsequent answers by applying the theory of new institutionalism as a framework, as well as studying previous research and media debates on the matter. The questions asked to fulfillthe aim of this thesis were: How do public librarians and academic librarians go about acquisitions concerning controversial materials, and does this give rise to any discussions inside, as well as outside, the library walls? And how, if at all, do the public libraries and the academic libraries differ in their acquisitions, and are there any notable differences in the potential discussion around it? Our study shows that the biggest distinction between Swedish public- and academic libraries lies in their different missions. Whereas public libraries have an obligation to promote the development of a democratic society, academic libraries are more concerned with supporting its students and researchers with satisfactory information and materials. This has an inevitable impact on the libraries acquisition methods – but also what they themselves consider to be “controversial”. They both, however, stress the importance of quality when acquiring new material. The study also shows that the public and academic librarians have a somewhat different approach towards acquisition-policies. One of the conclusions brings to light that the majority of the librarians being interviewed feel a strong need to fulfill their democratic mission by letting all sides of a discussion be heard; based on intellectual freedom, the freedom of speech and the

The purpose of this study is to create a greater understanding of how public librarians view their digital literacy and make sense of their role in library activities, with the purpose to increase other peoples digital literacy. An increasing need for digital literacy have influenced public library activities and the profession of public librarians and their need for digital skills. This makes it important to consider professionals perspectives on digital literacy. The research questions are: How do public librarians view their digital literacy? How do public librarians create sense of their role in activities aimed at increasing the public’s digital literacy? How do public librarians experience the expectations on public libraries to increase digital literacy activities? The empirical material was collected using semistructured interviews with five librarians and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The theory used for analyzing the results is Karl E. Weicks theory on sensemaking in organizations. The study concludes that public librarians view digital literacy as a natural part of their profession and the digital skill set as sufficient in order to manage the daily tasks. The librarians make sense of their role especially by drawing clues from the context and by earlier sensemaking processes. The study also concludes that the librarians see the expectations on increasing digital literacy activities as challenging in several different ways.

The aim of this master's thesis is to gain knowledge about users and non-users views about the public librarian profession. By interviewing users as well as non-users of public libraries we want to examine similarities and differences in views between these two groups. We also want to examine how the views of these two groups can relate to stereotypes of the public librarian identified in previous research. We have performed qualitative interviews with ten users and nine non-users. Professional theory and norm criticism theory is used as our theoretical framework. The study shows that users and non-users have a traditional view of the librarian. Their perceptions relate to the stereotype “the old maiden” which is the oldest and most used stereotype in media. There is no major difference between users and non-users perception of the librarian, which we found surprising. Both users and non-users lack in knowledge about the librarians technological competence. Users and non-users agreed on the importance of the library and librarian for the society. They were also aware of the library profession as a service profession. Other images of the librarian we could distinguish that we did not find in previous research are that the librarian and the library are often linked together and share identity. We also found that the librarian profession is perceived as threatened and irrelevant. With this study we have found that both users and non-users need more information about the library profession.

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how public librarians inspire children aged 9-12 years through book clubs. The study is based on five semi-structured phone interviews with leaders of book clubs. I made a qualitative content analysis of the interviews. In the interviews we focused on how they planned, performed their work, possibilities they could see, and finally challenges to be considered. This was later analysed from the perspective of Chambers theory of the reading circle, which he presents in his study Tell me : children, reading and talk . This theory shows the process of how children, with the adult’s support, can choose, read and react to literature. My conclusions based on the study are that the public librarians want the children's experience of the book club to be fun and not remind them of school. It’s a place where they can meet others and discuss literature they’ve been reading.

This essay explores and analyzes how public librarians in Kronoberg, Sweden understands their work and their profession. With these understandings the author wants to approach an empirical description of the professional practices and self-images of public librarians. The method has been based on seven interviews, where the librarians have discussed their professional practice, their knowledge and their education, and reflecting on how they are perceived by a wider public. Empirically, this gives us a self-image of librarians who is perceived to be cultural and intellectual professionals who works with social promotion and stands up for democratic values. Culture-oriented librarians use this self-image as an ideal type in their professional practice and focus on reading and culture intermediation, while information and technology-oriented librarians use this self-image as a prototype, and sees the library profession as a practice that also contains many kinds of social aspects, and here choose to focus on service and information intermediation. To give a theoretical understanding of the empirical material the author has used a theoretical framework based on theories about eight librarian-identities from the scientists Anders Ørom, Trine Schreiber and Olof Sundin. The author has identified four of these identities in the material. Theoretically, this gives us four different kinds of identities: The intermediary of culture, the social worker, the intermediary of information and the information organizer. Together, the four identities represents the multifaceted contents in public librarians professional practices. The occupational content that formed the identities since the beginning of the 1990s has in relation to the study’s empirical findings been modified and made more nuanced by the author. This essay therefore presents four librarian-identities that serves to constitute a conceptual apparatus for public librarians to engage in their identity creation. They can

This thesis aims to study how librarians perceive the identity of the public library. This is done by focusing on how librarians perceive the library’s roles, values, and the role of the librarian. One of the analytical tools used to illustrate this complexity is theories on underlying values and identity perceptions in organizations. The method is semi structured qualitative interviews with public librarians. An initial method to structure the empirical data consists of a phenomenographic approach. The findings show that the overall purpose of the library is to promote a democratic society where all citizens are equally valued. In order to do this the library needs to fulfill three main roles and some values. The main roles of the public library are to promote the availability of information, literature, and to be an open room for meetings. The values are to promote participation, critical thinking, and empathy among library users as well as to confirm users socially. The library’s resourses and services are valued for providng quality, variety, non-comersial intrests, and new perspectives. Furthermore, two basic values are to enrich people, eliminate inequalities, and by doing so promote human equality. The role of the librarian is to make sure that the resources and services of the library meet the criteria of all these roles and values. The librarian thus acts as an intermediary between these roles and values and the needs of the users and is therefore an important part of the library’s identity. The roles, values and the role of the librarian that make up this identity are presented in a model. The study shows that any activity, meeting or recourse that goes against any of the roles or values might be seen as a threat against the library. Another finding is that perceptions of a limitless role of the librarian could also be considered a threat against the library’s identity. This is a two year master’s thesis in Library and Information Sciense.

The new Swedish Library Act, which took effect in 2014, states in paragraph 2 that libraries in the public library system shall promote the development of a democratic society by contributing to the transfer of knowledge and the free formation of opinions. In recent years several debates have surfaced in the media concerning the democratic mission by public librarians and public libraries, in regard to the exclusion or inclusion of content that is critical of immigration. Furthermore the debates take into account whether libraries should take a political stance against xenophobia, with the purpose of promoting a diverse society. This master’s thesis can be described as an attempt to broaden the understanding of how public librarians perceive the democratic purpose of public libraries in relation to the selection of materials and activities, especially concerning titles which are critical of immigration. In order to answer these questions I have conducted semi-structured interviews with six public librarians who are employed within six different municipalities in Skåne, Sweden. In this thesis I have applied the theory of new institutionalism, with the concepts of institutional logics and legitimacy as the central tools in my analysis. The results show that the participating librarians consider activities which are meant to support immigrants and refugees to be essential in regard to the libraries democratic mission, which is due to the increased immigration in recent years. The librarians perceive that the libraries thus can function as a gateway into the community. In addition there is the subject concerning suggestions regarding purchases by library users, specifically self-published literature that is perceived to be critical of immigration, but also of immigrants in general, which brings the question of professional ethics into action. In general the librarians express reluctance towards acquiring materials that are discriminatory against certain minorities, in w

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to try to make the experiences and perceptions of librarians concerning their own expertise visible and through that visualise possible competences related to writing activities taking place in public libraries today. The research questions of this thesis are: How do public librarians experience working with writing activities in relation to their expertise as librarians? Which competencies do public librarians perceive as important regarding their labour with writing activities taking place at the library today? Which work related challenges do public librarians experience in relation to writing activities? To answer these questions I have chosen a qualitative perspective. My method consists of six semi-structured interviews with public librarians, who have diverse experiences related to writing activities. The theoretical basis of this study consist of Herlings operational definition of expertise as a concept and it's related cornerstones such as foremost competences. Herlings definition is set in an organizational research tradition and focuses mainly on human resources within that. The findings of this study suggests that public librarians experience a connection between their area of expertise and writing activities. And that their related competences are useful concerning how you talk about texts in a group context.The librarians also suggest that challenges might be to find functioning forms for the activity.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to find out how librarians working in combined school- and public libraries view their professional identity. The theoretical framework includes the seven librarian identities of Anders Ørom and Trine Schreiber combined with Beth Junckers theories of the culture sector with autotelic cultures and the education sector with instrumental cultures. The theoretical framework has been used in analyzing and discussing the results. The data has been collected through six semi-structured interviews, transcribed and processed for the analysis. The librarians were found to identify mostly with the culture intermediary identity in the culture sector. The information intermediary identity and the subject intermediary identity both were present in the school-librarian context, and the socialworking identity and the experience intermediary identity in the public-librarian context. Recommendations for further research are made based on the results.

The research interest of this Master’s thesis is public librarians’ work life. The purpose of the essay is to examine public librarians’ experiences of work enjoyment, their valuations of work enjoyment and work motivation factors, respectively. The research was done through a web-based survey that was mediated via the e-mailing list “Biblist” that reaches the majority of Sweden’s librarians. The questions in the quantitative survey were based on both theories of work enjoyment and the motivation theory of Hierarchy Two Factor Theory. 113 librarians participated in the study. The results showed that the public librarians in the survey experienced work enjoyment to a large extent. The work enjoyment factors that gave rise to most work enjoyment where those concerning 1. good relations with colleagues, 2. meaningful and stimulating work and 3. that colleagues are eager to do a good quality work. The work enjoyment factors public librarians valued the highest were 1. harmony and fellowship amongst colleagues, 2. meaningful, challenging, motivating, responsible and challenging tasks, 3. being able to influence, participate and have control over the work situation and 4. to have a good relationship with library users. The motivation factors that the public librarians valued as the most important for them in their work were 1. responsibility, 2. management and 3. the work itself.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the identity of the public librarianwith regard to reading is manifested in the library field. The approaches thatare taken to reading and readers are examined as well as the consequencesdifferent approaches might have. The empirical material is based on 93articles published in Swedish library journals. The theoretical andmethodological starting point is discourse analysis. The application ofdiscourse analysis according to Michel Foucault’s hypotheses reveals threediscursive formations regarding the professional identity of public librarianswithin the framework of reading promotion: The public librarian asguarantor of democracy is related to the public library's original mission offostering, cultivating and educating citizens. The librarian is expected tomake “proper literature” available to the general public. The public librarianas personal trainer highlights a trend in the library field of equating readingwith sports where the librarians are expected to win non-readers by recruitingpotential readers through sporting activities. The librarian is described as apeppery and spirited coach with the task of making readers out of nonreaders.The public librarian as caregiver of the soul emphasizes the librarianas an empathetic and caring supervisor with therapeutic expertise. The twoformer formations emphasize masculine reading. The relation between thelibrarian and the reader can be considered in terms of power. The librarianrepresents an institutionalized controlling power. The reader emerges aspassive and becomes an object of the librarian's mission, good will andexpertise and whose job it is to labour for the well-being of both theindividual and society in general. Through discourse analysis according toErnesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe it is made visible that thereis a strong emphasis on a narrow understanding of “reading” and “literature”.The concept of “the book” has a wider significance, however, and includesnot, Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this thesis is to study the reading habits of Swedish librarians visualized by librarians from Götabiblioteken – a collaboration of 14 public libraries in mid-Sweden – focusing on the reading done on their spare time, even if work-related. We started with a survey sent out to 74 librarians in October 2013, answered by 56, and followed up by interviewing 7 of them in November.We tried to answer these questions:To what extent does the working librarians read on their spare time compared to before they started working?What literature do they read, now compared to before they started working?To what extent does their perception of what they should have read affect their private reading?In what way does a librarian in the beginning of their career differ in reading habits from the reading habits of a librarian with many years in the profession?The result of our study shows that most of the librarians read as much or more than before they started to work. They are more selective in their choice of literature and are affected by their work in it in different ways. Their perception of what is needed affect their reading habits, but this seems to come from themselves and not from other librarians or the public. The answer to our last question is inconclusive, but it seems like the pressure lifts with experience.Librarians in this study put a lot of their free time into their work, in the form of reading., Program: Bibliotekarie

Purpose: The purpose of the study reported in this thesis is to addto the knowledge concerning what public librarians do to meet theneeds of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, thereby helpingthem to develop and establish themselves in a new environment.What tasks, activities and tools do the librarians have at theirdisposal? What problems do they encounter? What values, normsand attitudes guide their work? Method: The thoughts andexperiences of six public librarians have been captured throughqualitative semi-structured interviews, the result of which has beenthematically analysed using notions of social capital and socialexclusion. Findings: Unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors facea number of challenges which the public library with its librarians,collections and various activities can assist in coping with byproviding the children with opportunities to increase their socialcapital and decrease the risk of social exclusion. Researchlimitations: It has for several reasons proven difficult to studyunaccompanied asylum-seeking children as a distinct group, whichis why this study also uses material that deals with refugees as awhole. A significant amount of the latter are undeniablyunaccompanied minors, an especially exposed and vulnerable typeof refugees. The study is limited, local and situated and thereforenot empirically generalizable. Research implications: The studycontributes to the accumulated knowledge concerning the potentialof public libraries as vectors for building social capital in the livesof unaccompanied asylum seeking minors, in a variety of ways.The role, values and attitudes of librarians are especiallyhighlighted., Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of the study is to reach knowledge about how public librarians understands and describes environmental scanning as a working process in a Swedish public library. The study consists of 5 interviews with public librarians working within the same organization. The empirical material is presented in two ways. The first one is what aspects of the external world the librarians find important. The second is through a theoretical framework based on Magnus Hoppes model of environmental scanning, including communication and cognitive processes aswell as ways of analyzing information from the external world. Analysis shows that the relationship between the library it's environment requires different kinds of environmental scanning, often directed by the interests and professional ideals of the individual librarian., Program: Bibliotekarie