?Att vara där människor är? En kvalitativ studie av sex folkbiblioteks användande av sociala medier
The objective of this bachelor thesis is to examine how some larger Swedish public libraries reason about the use of social media as part of their activities and outreach. To attain the purpose three research-questions were established; why does the public library use social media? How does the public library utilize social media? What extra value do librarians believe that use of social media can add to the libraries? function? The methodology used in the thesis is qualitative interviews. Six interviews were conducted with librarians in charge of social media at their respective libraries. Five of the interviews were conducted by telephone and one by email. The theoretical framework for the thesis is the model developed by the three Danish researchers Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Skot-Hansen, which describes the public libraries? functions, goals and opportunities in the knowledge and experience society. It is concluded in this thesis that public libraries are using social media to connect with people, to communicate and interact with them. There is a wish for social media to serve as a meeting place where librarians can interact with users. Our results show, however, that these hopes are not fully realized, because the desired response from the users does not occur. Through social media, libraries can make their activities more visible and their resources more readily available for users. It is important for the libraries? credibility to be available and active on social media. The librarians we interviewed emphasized the importance of updating social media to keep them current and attractive to users. They also surmised that, for the future, the use of social media in libraries will increase and develop.