Rare book collections at public libraries asset or liability?

Care and solicitude about Swedish documentary heritage has varied substantially throughout the years. The main purpose of this essay has been to investigate what efforts have been made to preserve rare book collections at public libraries. These cultural policies have been studied from both a national as well as local perspective. What we have tried to explore can be condensed into three questions: What national initiatives have been taken in the past century to preserve the municipal documentary heritage?What initiatives have been taken in the past century to preserve thedocumentary heritage of what is presently the municipality of Jönköping? What value do rare book collections at public libraries represent? The results indicate few national efforts were initially made to preserve rare book collections in the timeframe we studied. Nevertheless, the current situation appears to be improving as for example the project to institute a national plan of preservation has brought these issues to the political agenda. A similar tendency, with a long period of inactivity only just recently ended, has been found in our local field of investigation as well. Presently, co-operation between libraries and archives in Jönköping has improved the conditions for rare book collections. In spite of the lack of formal instruments to assess the value of rare books, the results of the questionnaire we distributed indicate there is a concordance within Swedish libraries regarding the aforementioned value. This is particularly evident in the appraising of what we have chosen to label local cultural heritage.Uppsatsnivå: