”The work is about more than just stamping out books and being nice”. Tasks in Swedish public libraries 1990-2000 from a critical discourse analytical perspective

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine the profession of librarianship by studying tasks in Swedish public libraries. The method is a textual analysis of articles inspired by the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough. The theory applied consists of the profession theory of Andrew Abbott and the gender theory of Yvonne Hirdman. The questions raised are: how do librarians speak about their tasks, which discourses can be constructed and how can profession theory and gender theory explain the result. 61 articles from three Swedish library journals, Biblioteksbladet, DIK-Forum and bis, from the period 1990 to 2000 are analysed. Three discourses concerning the tasks of librarians are identified: a traditional discourse, an information technology discourse and a market economy discourse. The traditional discourse focus on traditional public librarian values with an anxiety towards the new technology as threatening to the profession. The information technology discourse sees the new technology merely as a tool to simplify the work and to make time for more demanding professional tasks. The market economy discourse centres on service and satisfying the demands of the users, who are seen and treated as customers. Application of profession theory results in showing how the information technology discourse is being part of a progress of the librarian profession, whereas the traditional discourse indicates a remaining position and the market economy discourse results in a professional decline. Application of gender theory results in showing how the gender contract is being renegotiated when information technology is introduced at the workplaces.Uppsatsnivå: