Liquid Modernity, Floating Collections : a Critical Investigation Into a Decision-Making Process at the Library of Gothenburg

In 2011 the pubic libraries in Gothenburg transitioned to floating collections. The process coincided with the temporary closing and renovation of the City Library, and was made possible by an almost simultaneous, centralisation of the libraries’ media budget that, as a side effect, also centralised the decision-making. The way that the process was decided upon and implemented gave rise to controversy, both within the administration and outside. This study delves into the decision-making process, how floating collections were introduced and how thetransition played out during the years 2011-2014. With the minutes of meeting from the so called “Library Management Group”, documents produced by the administration during the process and interviews with people involved, the study maps the steps that made the transition possible and the decisions that made it an inflamed topic. With added perspectives from organisational theory and critique of ideology the study goes into the mechanistics of decision-making within the framework of liquid modernity. It indicates a culture of decision-making that has left the bureaucracy of solid modernity behind and that sees the library organisation and employees within it as an obstacle instead of as a resource. The decision and the technical solution of floating collections is best understood as an object of ideology. That is to say that it is treated as a solution in itself to the contradictions and conflict that exists within the organisation. As the contradictions remain the decision-making in effect gives rise to more conflicts rather than less. The question from an ideological standpoint however is if this any longer poses a problem for the leadership, since there will always be new reorganisations to implement. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science