Målgrupp alla och dess behov - folkbibliotekets flummiga men underbara uppdrag
Public library missionTarget groupsLibrary service prioritiesMålgrupperFolkbibliotekets uppdragMålgrupp allaHumanitiesHumanioraSocial sciencesSamhällsvetenskaperSocial Sciences
The subject for this Master's thesis is the mission of the public library concerning target group everybody. Control documents, traditions, norms and trends influence how this is interpreted and how the library's service is being formed. The often very abstract terms used to describe the public library's mission makes it open for different interpretations. We are of the opinion that the public library's service should be formed to reflect the needs, interests, and priorities of the community it services, in order to be more attractive and useful.The aim of our study is to examine how the public librarians define and adjust to the mission to satisfy all citizens needs. Why do they choose to concentrate on certain target groups? And what does that show of how the public libraries reflect their communities? Our investigation includes examining six activities aimed at a certain target group and the six public libraries that carried these out. The investigation includes document analysis and interviews with librarians.Our results show that the public library's mission is complex and the library's roles and functions are many. As to target group everybody the public library has a double mission: to provide their users with good service and to extend the group of users. The mission to give everybody everything is impossible to achieve so the librarians tend to re-interpret the mission into forming a sort of basic service that they offer to everybody and then they give special attention to certain groups or activities.We have come to the conclusion that the groups that libraries give priority to are the groups that should receive special attention according to Swedish library law with the exception of immigrants, and to a certain extent, youths. We also found that the staff and their interests have a strong influence on how library services are being shaped and to which groups they give special attention. As to the result of how these libraries reflect their communities, we found that they do so fairly well but more as a result of influences from the library field and co-operating partners in their communities, than by an expressed effort.