Occupational identity under construction : An interview study about collection development and community of practice at the public libraries in Gothenburg

The aim of this thesis is to understand how organizational changes within collection development of printed media affect public librarians’ perception of community of practice and professional identity. The data collection method used is semi-structured interviews with nine public librarians in Gothenburg regarding their experience of centralized acquisition and floating collections. The material is analyzed within Wenger’s theoretical framework concerning communities of practice and identity in practice. The findings show a spectrum of experiences. There is a general difference in the result between respondents representing the central library and the district libraries. The librarians at the central library, now responsible for all acquisitions, tend to be more positive to the changes. The respondents who experience most impact express an experience of lost control over the collections and the process of selecting new media. They express difficulties monitoring new literature after the centralization. Even though all respondents state the users as the primary focus, they have different approaches in terms of how the printed collections should be used to meet the users’ needs. Three themes are identified in the discussion section. Firstly, the public librarians in Gothenburg are discussed as a community of practice in terms of Wenger’s three characterizing dimensions. Secondly, collection development in relation to practice and identity is discussed. Finally, the respondents’ experience of centralized acquisitions and floating collections is discussed, using the prevalent distinction between a focus on the collection or a focus on the user as a starting point