Bookmobiles in the 21st century : how and why? A study based on interviews with staff members of the book mobile service

This thesis is about the bookmobile service in Sweden of today. The purpose is to examine how the staff motivate the existence of the bookmobile. Other purposes are to study the goals of the service, to describe “daily life” of the bookmobile, examine the changes of the service during the years and discuss possible changes in the future. The study is based on interviews with thirteen staff members from six Swedish communities, of both rural and urban character. The chosen theories are based on an organization theory and a theory about different roles of a public library. The study shows that one distinguishing characteristic of the bookmobile service is its social emphasis. It also shows that the bookmobile’s basic function is to give library service in the form of book borrowing. The activity with bookmobiles justifies on the basis of democracy aspects. The goals are usually informal and have been created by the staff members’ specific work procedures that have been established through the years. This organizational culture influences the service of the bookmobile. One conclusion is that it is desirable that the objective of the bookmobile service will be written and also specified in some way. Another conclusion is that in order to secure its future, the bookmobile needs to develop. In the future the bookmobile service possibly will decrease due to changes within the structure of the population or other reasons.Uppsatsnivå: