Är du kvar på ditt gamla dammiga bibliotek? Bilden av bibliotekarien i svensk skönlitteratur 1982-2002
The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how the images of librarians are conceived and held by the public. It has often been claimed that librarians are subject to widely spread negative stereotyping. My purpose is to study the nature and origin of these stereotypes. Since popular media is one source of these stereotypes and images I have chosen to look into how librarians are characterized in 20 Swedish novels written between 1982-2002. The questions this thesis aims to answer are: What images of librarians occur in the novels? How are the tasks of the librarians respectively described in the novels? How are female and male librarians respectively described? The analysis of the novels is then compared with interviews with three professional librarians about their view of their professional role and their perceptions of its status and image. In the analysis I have come to the following conclusions: The images of the librarians in the novels are often very stereotyped and in most cases the image produced by the writers is a negative one. In most cases the librarians work is described as unqualified labour. Female and male librarians are often seen as persons with a non-typical gender behavior. The views that emerge in the interviews differ completely from the images represented in the novels. The informants speak of the varied, challenging and qualified nature of their work. They did not identify with the negative librarian stereotype, but were aware of its existense.