Double assignments : A qualitative study of two School and Public Libraries with a library profile

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine libraries which combine the functions of school- and public library and to evaluate the staff’s experience and attitude towards a library profile with the emphasis on children and youth. The purpose of the study is also to examine how the libraries work with several tasks and functions within different target groups with different needs. With new institutionalism and Scandinavian institutional theory the thesis examine the library as an organization and what influences the construction. With a model that describes how the library constitutes four different rooms in the society I investigate the different functions. The methodology is qualitative with interviews of five persons of the staff, four librarians and one library assistant. The study examines how the staff that works at two libraries under similar conditions experiences their tasks. Both libraries have a library profile and are school- and public libraries. The results show that it can be a problem to combine two working cultures, teachers and librarians, from a normative perspective and cause problems with roll definitions. A library profile can be defined as an adaption to the market and the local needs should be considered in order to succeed. The context of local circumstances within the district such as social conditions and working methods should also be considered. It’s important to analyze what the library can do to justify their activity. The survey also showed that the two libraries were very different from each other and that the staff thinks differently about the profile and is differently accepted by the staff