Lärcentrum i biblioteket, möjligheter och utmaningar. Tre aktörsgruppers syn på lärcentrum och dess samverkan med biblioteket
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the points of view of three groups of actors about their local learning center and its collaboration with the library. By interviewing groups of actors from the municipal sector, the library staff and students, I aim to investigate their associations of the learning centre, what kind of services it should offer, and how they understand the role of the library staff in specific collaboration between the public library and the adult education administration. The study design is based on Gunnar Grepperud?s and Terje Thomsen?s three missions for a local learning centre; the mission of a broker, a meeting place and a motivator. I also use Carol Kuhlthau?s levels of mediation as an approach to investigate how the actors want the library staff to work in relation to the centre. The major findings show that the actors have different associations and expectations of their local learning centre. The group of municipal representatives emphasized the mission of a motivator as an important element in their strive towards the goal to raise the regional level of education, while the library staff and the students were more concerned about the local learning centre as a physical place with the physical and personal service for distance education. At the same time, they all emphasised the physical place for studies, the technical utilities and the library resources as important factors in creating the local learning centre. According to the group of actors, the library staff is an important resource as a guide and support for literature and information seeking and to makes sure that the students have access to course literature and access to loans from other schools and institutions. However, the number of tasks has increased and the role of the library staff has become more blurred.