The research library system in Sweden during the 1950s

After W.W. II the Social democratic government wanted to modernize and rationalize the Swedish society. The university system was reformed[INS: :INS] to support growth of industry and science. But the reform did not reach Swedish academic library system and it was not well organized. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the reaction of the Swedish academic libraries to the new era in the framework of ideological criticism. The problems I try to find answer to are as follows: What did the Swedish state demand of the libraries? How did the libraries try to respond to this, especially in the discussions about co-operation among the libraries and qualification for librarians? The state required that the libraries answer to the demands of the universities and research, but the authorities did not give so much grant as the libraries required. The state did not understand how the libraries worked, or what their problems were. The libraries tried to solve the problems through co-operation, building up a union-library. The growing interurban loan movement was a part of it, and coordinated book acquisition was the another. Relations between the different types of library were not free from problems, which also influenced the discussions. There were different ideas behind the union-library plan. Some wanted to unite and centralize the libraries in Sweden. Others thought the unified library was a sum of close co-operation among the individual libraries.Uppsatsnivå: