Images of Library Users

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine in what way library users are depicted on images at two academic libraries; the University College of Borås Library & Learning Resources (BLR) and the Gothenburg University Library (GUB). 62 images, from websites and information brochures, are analyzed and the main questions are: How are users represented on images? What activities are shown? What is the difference between BLR and GUB? How can the consequences of the representations be understood? Little is currently known in the LIS-field about how images work as constructors of the social reality. The theoretical and methodological point of departure of the study is discourse analysis, new institutional theory and picture analysis. The result of the analysis is that BLR shows a larger variety of activities than GUB, and more users using the computer. The typical user on the images from GUB is sitting in a large study hall alongside with a large number of other users. Women are more often depicted than men in the whole material and the images reveal an absence of personal-user interaction. The users are shown as independent. A general impression is that GUB, considering the long history and the unanimous images, is more institutionalized than BLR. Both the behavior of the users in the library and the making of new library images are influenced by the existing images.Uppsatsnivå: