Den gränslösa samlingen
de fria webbresursernas plats i beståndsutvecklingen på några svenska forskningsbibliotek
The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the management of free Internet resources in three Swedish research libraries. With the starting point in the increased quantity and importance of these resources, together with reflections on the change of the concept of collection, the thesis shows how and to what extent these freely accessible Internet resources are being integrated in the day-to-day work with collection development. It also elucidates the problems with the free Internet resources from the research libraries points of view. The study is based upon analyses of collection management literature and qualitative interviews with librarians at the chosen libraries. The thesis shows that the research libraries still have not come very far in their work of integrating the free Internet resources in their collections. Only one of the examined libraries mentions the free Internet resources in its collection development policy, and none of them have worked out routines for how to manage these resources. What characterizes the management of free Internet resources in the examined libraries is a kind of uncertainty of what is possible to do with them, a fear of the uncontrollable part of the medium, and an expectant attitude. There are no signs of a fundamental transformation of collection management, but rather of a cautious modernization of already existing structures and routines. The barriers for a more widespread use of the free Internet resources that were found, are almost identical with those mentioned in the literature, and consist of institutional inertia as well as the transient character of Internet resources.