Högskolan i Skövde

This article reports on a study of academic librarians' views of their work and possibilities regarding support for researchers' publishing. Institutional repositories and Open Access are areas being dealt with in particular. Methods used are highly qualitative; data was gathered at two Swedish university libraries over a six month period through focus group interview sessions and personal logs by informants. Findings indicate that attitudes are often in collision with practicalities in the daily work in libraries. Even though they have a high degree of knowledge and awareness of scholarly publication patterns, librarians often feel insecure in the approach of researchers. There is a felt redirection in the focus of academic librarianship, from pedagogical information seeking tasks towards a more active publication support, a change which also includes a regained prominence for new forms of bibliographical work. Although there are some challenges, proactive attitudes among librarians are felt as being important in developing further support for researchers' publishing.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate planning processes for academic library buildings and the outcomes of such processes. This is accomplished through a case study utilising discourse analysis. The main question is: How is a vision of an academic library implemented in and through a building? The case study is retrospective and focused on the building of a new library at Kalmar University, Sweden, at the end of the 1990s. During this period, technological and educational developments and general societal change transformed the context of library planning and made way for renegotiations of the librarian profession. A critical realist approach characterises the study of visions, processes and the analysis of the various functions of the building. Results reveal the proactive nature of the activities of the library director in Kalmar. Early in the process he formulated a vision in which he presents the library as an information resource, a meeting place between different user groups and a workplace intended to promote learning and knowledge. From a professional point of view, the vision implied a dehierarchisation of relations both within the library staff and between library staff and visitors. The vision was based on an interpretation of Swedish national educational policy, and architecturally manifested by an ambition to reduce the physical and psychological boundaries between library staff and visitors. The early formulation of the vision together with the clients’ use of architectural expertise facilitated the choice of architects. However during the process a need arose to anchor the decision in the library field. Efforts were made to address library expertise and to collect user comments from a broader academic field. Discourses concerning the university library as a workplace and a meeting place were especially evident in the strategies of the leading agents. The discourses uncovered in the study correspond to more general discourses which became prominent in society and higher education during the period in question. The library itself has met growing appreciation by users both from within and outside the university. The proactive leadership demonstrated by the library director in Kalmar was based on hegemony rather than coercion. This corresponds to contemporary tendencies. Hegemonic consent may persist even after changes in leadership. In Kalmar however, architectural solutions with insufficient support from the library staff have been reconstructed after changes in leadership. Future research on architectural planning processes may pay further attention to different discursive resources, social fields and the positions within them.

Studying academic library buildings: Small and medium-sized academic library buildings in a recent context

Academic library buildings are complex phenomena and subject to far-reaching changes today. This article suggests that a discursive perspective may prove fruitful in studying such buildings and the process behind their creation. guided by previous research in social and architectural theory, the author tries to capture some aspects of academic library buildings and their manifestation in concrete architectural form as well as discourse. Communication and interpersonal relations among agents in planning, design and construction are focused in an attempt to find ways to describe and explain relations between visions and completed buildings.

Det här arbetet försöker utveckla delar av Lena Skoglunds undersökning vid Göteborgs stadsbibliotek 1987, främst de användarkategorier baserade på besöksändamål som hon använde. Syftet är att studera vilken roll ett stadsbibliotek spelar för teknisk, naturvetenskaplig och ekonomisk informationsförsörjning. De fragor som stäils är: 1. Var söker man information?, 2. För vilka ändamål söker man information? och 3. Hur vill man att biblioteket ska vara uppbyggt med tanke på 1. och 2. I samband med 1. agnas viss uppmärksamhet åt människors kunskaper om bibliotek. Undersökningen är kvalitativ till sin karaktär eftersom avsikten har varit att upptäcka mönster och variation i biblioteksanvändningen. Kärnan utgörs av intervjuer med besökare pA Ulricehamns stadsbibliotek (= huvudbiblioteket). Användarintervjuerna tyder på att stadsbiblioteket föredras framför filialerna. De ändamål användarna har med besöken hänger samman med nytta, nyfikenhet, hobby, arbete, sjalvstudier, studier och olika medicinska frågor. De intervjuade betonar främst pedagogiska och kvalitativa aspekter när det gäller satsningar pA olika medier. Önskemal om satsningar på speciella ämnen inskränker sig oftast till egna intresseområden.