Constructions of a Networked Library: A Document Analysis of the Proposal for a National Strategy of Libraries and its Reception across the Swedish Library Sector

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MASTERUPPSATS I BIBLIOTEKS- OCH INFORMATIONSVETENSKAP AKADEMIN FÖR BIBLIOTEK, INFORMATION, PEDAGOGIK OCH IT

Constructions of a Networked Library

A Document Analysis of the Proposal for a National Strategy of Libraries and its Reception across the Swedish Library Sector

CIA GUSTRÉN

© Cia Gustrén

Mångfaldigande och spridande av innehållet i denna uppsats – helt eller delvis – är förbjudet utan medgivande.

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Title: Constructions of a Networked Library:

A Document Analysis of the Proposal for a National Strategy of Libraries and its Reception across the Swedish Library Sector

Author: Cia Gustrén

Supervisor: Jenny Johannisson

Year: 2020

Abstract:

This thesis concerns itself with the notion of a networked or cooperating library and the discursive means by which it is constructed in documents related to the formation of a national strategy of libraries in Sweden. I study the draft as presented by the national library, Kungliga Biblioteket (KB), in early 2018, the comments and advice submitted by different parts of the library sector during the fall of 2018 as well as the final proposition handed over to the Minister of Culture in March 2019. The study focuses on what defines or constitutes a networked library, on the significance of a networked library for the perceived identity of libraries and library professionals and finally, on what grounds a networked library is ascribed legitimacy or is subject to criticism. This is worth investigating because of the calls for increased collaboration and coordination of different parts of the library sector and its implications for the professional identity as well as the wider understanding of what a library is and what a library does.

The method of approach is a thematic document analysis informed by discourse studies. Discursive strategies are used as the main analytic tool.

Strategies are adopted from the critical vein of discourse analysis (CDA) but are applied here in a way consistent with poststructuralist discourse theory and its ontological assumptions.

The results show that the library sector is going through a dilemma of redefining, adjusting, modernizing, and broadening the meaning of libraries or keeping with a long-standing tradition that not always corresponds with the library practices of today. This tradition is subject to changing conditions – not least due to the digital transformation – as much as it remains a firm ground for legitimizing the professional field. A networked library requires a stale image to be left behind in favor of a collaborative library infrastructure, extending its meaning towards a library identity which adheres to the conditions of a networked world. In conclusion, a networked library is found in the middle-ground between a traditional identity and creating a new story about libraries.

Key words:

discursive strategies, document analysis, networked library, topoi.

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1 Introduction

This thesis deals with the discursive establishment of a library infrastructure or entity of libraries that composes the interrelated totality of library services in the country. Already in 1953, chief librarian at The Royal Institute of Technology Carl Björkbom (1953) elaborated on the notion of a universal or world library comprising all libraries within a city or nation – even the whole world. This vision about a library in which all human knowledge is locally accessible, is referred to as a utopian (although persistent) vision due to the immensity of scientific production. This was a formative aspect of research libraries above all, although each library is considered part of this world library because of the interurban character of library loans (1953, p. 321).

Furthermore, it requires that libraries confine themselves and the scope of their collections. The emergence of a common library infrastructure is said to have an impact on all activities within the library community, according to which it is argued, the acquisition of resources must be aligned.

Considerations as to where a resource is most needed and how many items of a library resource are required to fulfil this need means that the tasks of different kinds of libraries are more clearly defined. For the same reason, also libraries with a more general profile are meant to cover their own subject areas (1953, p. 321). What is reflected here is a certain degree of specialization – implying that libraries are designated a specific role in the wider library landscape due to the perceived necessity of a shared responsibility for the provision of library services across the country.

The ever-reaching growth of research literature has led to a situation which can only, according to Björkbom (1953), be resolved in an interlibrary context (1953, p. 326f). From this perspective, it may be an adequate prospect in the 21st century knowledge and information society that libraries cooperate and work together as a whole. Not only is the division of responsibilities facilitated and made more efficient, but in a statement made by Björkbom (1956) in a news article back in the 1950s, research was said to become more multi- or cross-disciplinary because of the flexibility applied to acquisition of library stocks (Svenska Dagbladet, 1956-06-27). University resources may be unlocked and the negotiating power vis-à-vis the publishing industry may be strengthened. According to another news statement by chief librarian at Gothenburg university library, Gösta Ottervik (1967) a decade later, cooperation at a local level was only thought to be possible where there are different kinds of libraries – but the number of such locations was increased with the advent of new university branches and accompanying library units (Sölvesborgstidningen 1967-04-07). As cooperation was increasingly growing in demand in the national and international debate on libraries, it was thought to be about time that the local exchange between libraries is paid due attention.

According to a report published by the Swedish Library Association (2014), one of the various initiatives through which a long-standing tradition of cooperation and sharing of information between different types of libraries has been manifested, is the Swedish accessions catalogue from as early as 1886 – dealing exclusively with foreign literature – and the centralized

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cataloguing routines introduced in 1958. In order to come to terms with the ever-growing research literature, the Nordic countries also came to establish an agreement in the end of the 1950s called “Skandiaplanen”, with the purpose to cooperate on the provision of information and literature as well as the monitoring of different areas of research. The following decades were marked by the aspiration towards rationalization and improvement of library practices by means of technological advances. This eventually led to the consolidation of different services into the national library catalogue (Svensk Biblioteksförening 2014, p. 33ff; 39f). Since 1976, cataloguing in Sweden has been carried out in the Library Information System, Libris, with the National Library of Sweden (Kungliga Biblioteket, KB) assigned the main responsibility.

Along with an expanding library sector, there has been a dilemma of how to balance the overall demands for a variety of services and resources with an allocation of responsibility which is both effective and user-friendly. This dilemma has not subsided, but rather grown in importance in a society characterized by and increasingly dependent on the exchange of information.

A turning point may be said to have been reached as KB was assigned the overall responsibility for the Swedish library sector in the government’s bill on cultural policy (2009/10: 3). With calls for a clearer and more pronounced role and purpose for the national library in negotiating on issues of interest to libraries as well as their users, such as open access and the digitization of the cultural heritage, it is not surprising that KB was eventually delegated the mission to formulate a proposition for a national strategy for Swedish libraries (Kulturdepartementet, 2015). The process of developing a strategy in dialogue with the library community forms the point of departure for this thesis and its interest in the coordination of Swedish libraries and the wider cultural implications of a library infrastructure for the identity of libraries and library professionals in a Swedish context.

In 2015, KB thus started working out a common strategy, Nationell biblioteksstrategi, with former journalist Erik Fichtelius as head of the project. The rest of the Nordic countries already had their strategies in place, and Sweden was expected to follow their example. The strategy, with the title Demokratins skattkammare (“The treasure trove of democracy”) (Kungliga biblioteket, 2019) was finally delivered and handed over to the Minister of Culture in March 2019. In view of the importance of libraries for a democratic society, a national strategy certainly has its advantages as to make visible the future significance of libraries as a necessary condition for a democratic society. The marked differences between Swedish municipalities also calls for a coordinated effort to guarantee equal access to libraries and library services. Again, this was meant to be assured by the mission assigned to KB by the government. Since 2018, it is part of KB’s mandatory instructions from the government to promote cooperation among libraries (Förordning om ändring i förordningen med instruktion för Kungl. biblioteket 3§, SFS 2018:15). In addition, it is stipulated in the Library act (Bibliotekslagen, 14§, SFS 2013: 801) that library officials are bound to cooperate to provide access for everyone to the totality of library resources.

In documents that are normative rather than legally binding, such as the International Manifesto of Libraries issued by the International Federation of

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Library Associations (IFLA) and published in Swedish by the Swedish Library Association (2014), it is stated that there should be pronounced support and encouragement of cooperation between libraries in order to ensure a satisfactory standard of library services across the country, that library activities are not supposed to be conducted in isolation from the surrounding world but engage in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in a local, regional, national and international context. In this way, there is a chance that networks may be formed that sufficiently satisfy the needs of the proclaimed information society (Internationella Biblioteksmanifestet 2014, p.

13; 27; 54; 61). According to a report on academic libraries published by the Swedish Library Association (2014), resources may then be used more efficiently and constitute a common entry-point to the world of information (Svensk biblioteksförening 2014, p. 37). For the same reason, cooperation is needed for more efficiently and reliably making statistical estimations of the operation of a national library system.

In the initial draft to a national strategy of libraries, Från ord till handling (“From words to deeds”) (Kungliga biblioteket, 2018), the need for a cooperating library organization is articulated in the demand for a joint library structure or sambibliotek as it is called in Swedish. According to the Swedish accessions catalogue, the concept of joint-use libraries has been known in the scientific community of libraries since the 19th century (Sveriges offentliga bibliotek, 1887, IV). Initially, joint-use libraries referred to the collaboration between public libraries and research libraries that followed from the spread of research beyond the university context and which gave rise to an increase of interurban loans mentioned by Björkbom (1953). However, what is meant by joint-use libraries in this thesis is more a matter of the organization of the Swedish library system at large. I therefore use the concept of a networked library rather than joint-use library to indicate that I study a system of interrelated library services; that is, it refers to the totality of library services across the nation.

A networked library may initially be understood as a conceptualization of cooperation and division of responsibilities between libraries at different levels of the system. It encompasses all available library resources and is thus considered to have practical consequences – not least for the scientific community to conduct research on areas that demand resources beyond the scope of a single library collection. A networked library has also been thought to fundamentally alter the condition of all library practices. This must, it has been suggested, be reflected in the work of individual libraries (Ottervik, in Sölvesborgstidningen 1967-04-07). The way the draft sought to revive the notion of a networked library, may indicate that a new attitude towards library practices, with more of a regard to the totality of libraries and library services than one’s own branch, is called for in the future.

As we have seen, a networked library was first considered a utopian vision which has become more and more manifest in a society where information is exchanged to a large extent within and between a range of networked communities including the library sector. In the proposed draft of a national strategy of libraries, a networked library was not only deemed desirable but necessary for the digital supply of information resources. Indeed, the concept of a networked library is said in the draft to need a renewed definition in order

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to serve as a guiding principle in bringing together libraries and library services towards a common goal. For the same reason, I am interested in the discursive construction of a networked library as well as the perceived significance of a networked library for the identity of libraries and library professionals and how a networked library is ascribed legitimacy in an institutional and professional context.

1.1 Thesis statement

There are clearly political motives for a networked library – but the question is how this is attuned to processes of professional identity formation within the library sector. This thesis and its focus on the discursive means of constructing a networked library also looks at the relation between political and professional interests and whether they are contrasted or set against each other as competing accounts of the social world. Although KB’s mission is mainly to coordinate the overall library system, representatives for different kinds of libraries – such as public libraries and academic libraries – have argued that they are to some extent subordinated to a centralized order in a way that threatens the perceived independence among libraries at the local level. The question that arises is what happens with their autonomy and independence vis-à-vis the national level of decision-making. Also, the issue remains how a networked library is supposed to be structured and how to achieve an equal division of responsibilities. However, it presupposes that we know what a networked library means and how to make it possible. It is unclear what is meant by a networked library and what implications it has for the general understanding of libraries and the library profession, other than referring to the way different libraries take on different roles and functions in relation to a larger context.

The interest of this thesis is directed towards the national strategy and its reception across the Swedish library sector because it may be understood as a matter of common identity formation among libraries in a Swedish context.

This may also be relevant to the issue of securing the future legitimacy and professional status of librarians and thus prove its value in times of pressing economic constraints. I argue in this thesis that a networked library is pertinent in so far as libraries are in search for a new identity. It is suggested in the drafting of a national strategy of libraries that the notion of a joint library structure deserves to be ascribed new meanings, and it remains to be seen what this articulatory or meaning-making process will lead up to. Thus, the problem statement of this thesis is firstly concerned with the very definition of a networked library as it is envisioned in the strategy documents.

Secondly, the question which also forms part of the problem statement of this thesis, is how to reconcile seemingly conflicting standpoints and achieve a unified and integrated library system – an infrastructure in which different types of libraries work together in order to realize the vision of a networked library. This is a matter of how to coordinate the library system into an integrated whole.

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1.2 Aim and research questions

This thesis is concerned with the discursive means for constructing a networked (or cooperating) library. The aim of the thesis is to study the construction of a networked library as it is implicitly or explicitly manifested in the formation of a national strategy of libraries. What interests me is different ways of ascribing meaning, significance, and legitimacy to the concept of a networked library. In what sense is a networked library considered desirable and when is it deemed problematic? The overarching research questions to be answered in the present study are:

Q1. What definitions of a networked library are suggested?

Q2. What is the perceived significance of a networked library to the identity of libraries and library professionals?

Q3. How is a networked library ascribed legitimacy in the field of library practices?

I intend to answer these questions by analyzing documents that were produced as part of the ongoing project of formulating a national strategy of libraries in Sweden. The method of approach is based upon the thematic application of discursive strategies since they may explicate the underlying assumptions that structure the meaning and identity of libraries.

1.3 Delimitations of the study

The selection of empirical materials was guided by an interest for the construction of a networked library as represented in documents covering the general principles of a national strategy of libraries in Sweden. Thus, the two main strategy documents – the draft and the final proposition – together with a collection of comments and opinions on the draft published on KB’s external blog about the national strategy will be analyzed in this thesis. The senders of the submitted comments that eventually resulted in the final proposition were ranging from individual to collective and public to private actors on a local, regional, and national level. Above all, the comments were put forward by representatives for Swedish municipalities and regions, library organizations, professional associations and unions, councils, culture- and educational units, and so on. As I see it, the selected statements comprise a relatively equal share of empirical material as the other two documents together.

It should be noted that the overall strategy documents rest on extensive research published in the reports of the strategy project. I have still chosen not to delve deeply into the accompanying research reports and external analyses that specialize on specific library areas, even if these reports form the basis of the overall strategy. This is because I am mainly interested in the overarching aspects of the strategy which relates to libraries in general. Other than stating that public institutions such as libraries are increasingly

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dependent upon cooperation with the surrounding world, the research reports do not contain information about a networked library – which is the primary focus of the present thesis. For the same reason, I did not include the status report published in 2016. It mostly contains comments and excerpts of dispatches and may rather be read as a meta-document which thus falls outside the scope of the present study.

The most part of the empirical material was analyzed during the spring of 2019, shortly after the final proposition to a national strategy of libraries had been released and handed over to the Minister of Culture. At this point of time, there had been no comments on the final proposition submitted yet. As of fall 2019, the final proposition was under consideration and sent out for comment by the library sector again. As much as I would have liked to include this material in the present thesis it had to be saved for future research. Thus, I have not included this most recent part of the strategy formation process, because the material already analyzed was comprising three different and complementary kinds of material as regards the process of formulating a strategy. It should be noted however, that this thesis was written in the process of strategy formation which is by no means finished but still in progress.

As to the comments and advice on the draft, the analysis is based upon a selection of statements considered relevant to the interest of the thesis in issues of the meaning or identity of libraries as well as coordination and cooperation within the library sector. The aim is not to present a full picture of which issues are addressed in the empirical material but to present such statements that are relevant to the discursive construction of a networked library. Including the full range of the comments would have been too comprehensive since there were 84 documents in total, each of which is 2-8 pages. Also, it is evident that regional and municipal bodies agree on the same standpoints as to what needs revision in the drafting of a national strategy and thus the same comments are often repeated in the material. The comments vary in length, but I read them with a focus on the construction of a networked library.

With a networked library, I do not so much refer to the specific instances of cooperation between libraries, which may be exemplified with the former Härnösand library or the joint-use library in Almedalen, Gotland. I am rather interested in the library sector as a whole and the way different types of libraries and library services across the country intersect and work together as a totality. In other words, I focus on the collective identity of libraries in Sweden as it manifests itself in the strategy documents at hand. Importantly, I do not intend to make normative judgments as to what libraries ‘should’ be but how the institutional identity of libraries in general and the notion of a networked library in particular are ascribed legitimacy in relation to the various concerns raised in the documents. These concerns are expressed in the strategy documents as a set of problem areas together with suggested measures. Rather than studying the documents in terms of clear-cut problems and solutions, I draw attention to the way the notion of a networked library is problematized but also articulated or structured according to the possibilities or productive potentials that may be inherent in different problem statements.

In other words, I look for constructive ideas as to how coordination of a wider library infrastructure may be achieved.

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In the analysis of the documents, I have chosen to ignore certain aspects that relate to specific kinds of libraries in favor of more general and broadly defined areas that are more relevant to the focus of this thesis on the significance of a networked library for the identity of libraries in a wider perspective. It means that I mainly focus on the very definitions of libraries and the meaning of collaboration and coordination between different forms of libraries and library services rather than the specific role of school libraries or special libraries, for instance. These types of libraries are indeed important and central to the national strategy at hand, but for the purposes of this thesis I focus more closely on the relations between libraries and the overall meaning of libraries in a Swedish context. For the same reason, I do not refer to any particular group of library users either, but rather to the general populace with a right to library services as stipulated in the Library act (Bibliotekslagen, SFS 2013: 801). The position taken towards the role of libraries as joint and cooperating bodies of a democratic society may thus be clarified with reference to the right of each citizen to have access to libraries and library services when they need them. Thus, I do not focus specifically on the users of different types of libraries but rather the common usage of libraries among democratic citizens.

Even though cultural policy is not a framework as important to all types of libraries and library practices, I limit myself in this thesis to cultural policy at the cost of other political areas – such as educational policy and economic policy. After all, the overarching mission of the national library to coordinate the wider library system is formulated within cultural policy. Also, even though I study part of a policy process towards a national strategy of libraries, I do not so much approach it as processes of policymaking as I look into the politics of meaning-making overall by studying the construction of a networked library. As Marianne Jørgensen and Louise Phillips (2002) put it, politics in (poststructuralist) discourse theoretical terms “is a broad concept that refers to the manner in which we constantly constitute the social in ways that exclude other ways. […] Politics, then, is not just a surface that reflects a deeper social reality; rather, it is the social organization that is the outcome of continuous political processes (2002, p. 36). Thus, I will not immerse myself in cultural policy other than is manifested in the discursive meaning- making processes of the strategy documents studied in the thesis.

1.4 Outline

The thesis is divided into five chapters. In the introduction (chapter 1), I have provided a background for the present study together with the problem statement and the research questions I attempt to answer. I also presented the empirical basis for the study together with its delimitations. In the chapter on previous research (chapter 2), I move from a historical perspective on a networked library and its organizational motives to a present view of the library system and further on to the wider social implications of libraries and library use in a networked world. In the method section (chapter 3), I deal with the choice of approach as an integrated framework of theory and method.

The ontological assumptions underpinning the thesis will be presented

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together with the discursive tools with which I intend to analyze the empirical material. Then, the empirical analysis follows (chapter 4), consisting of two parts – each of which will take a different topos or argumentation scheme as a contextual point of reference. In the concluding discussion (chapter 5), I finally summarize and contextualize the results of the study in line with previous research and discuss its relevance to library and information science.

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2 Previous research

According to library and information researchers Catarina Eriksson and Angela Zetterlund (2008), previous research on the library sector is usually partial – meaning that it seldom deals with the overall system but rather with its constituent parts (2008, p. 3). This is one of the reasons why I find it interesting to take a broader approach to the issue of a networked library than the studies near specific types of libraries that have been conducted to a great extent before. In this review of previous research, I turn to studies about collaboration between libraries, the general characteristics of libraries in a networked world and the consequences of the digital transformation for the coordination of different kinds of libraries. The studies included in this overview are important because they largely contextualize the concept of a networked library and explain some of the basic assumptions with relevance for the present study. Studies were selected not only from library and information science, but also from organizational studies and sociology to cover a wider spectrum of critical outlooks on the concept in question. They are all relevant to the discursive means of constructing a networked library in that they present the historical, organizational, institutional, and social conditions for such a construction.

2.1 A history of the networked library organization

A historical perspective on the organization of a networked library is important for recognizing that what we see today has been an ongoing development for a long time. It thus contributes to the understanding of the constitution of a networked library as well as its historical legitimacy. The research presented here is relevant to this study because it is concerned with the overall social and historical structure of the library sector in Sweden and the way it has been governed by central agencies in order to secure the public access to library services. In regard of the so-called library spirit often mentioned in research within library history, LIS (Library and Information Science) researcher Magnus Torstensson (2009) points out that ever since the increased efforts to achieve a modern welfare state in the 1970s:

it was a question of democracy that everyone in society could get the necessary knowledge and cultural experiences to take part in the political, social, and cultural development (2009, p. 11).

Indeed, this formed the basis for much of the cultural policy of the time and has ever since been a cornerstone of library practices in the Nordic countries.

As Anders Frenander (2012) opens a study on the historical trajectory of public library politics in Sweden from early 20thcentury and onwards, it is stated that the library landscape used to be highly shifting and lacking a clear structure. In the early 1900s, there was a myriad of different library units that had emerged in a variety of institutional and organizational contexts (2012, p. 6). At this time, there was a growing concern at the national level that

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libraries provided citizens with the opportunity to satisfy their need for education and literary amusement and with this engagement there was no room for uncoordinated management of the public library system. It was highlighted in public investigations that national agencies must intervene to make sure that public libraries are to the benefit of all citizens. The public sector was deemed in need of further development, which is why the national responsibility would have to be extended (2012, p. 42; 44). From the very start, there was an ambition to eliminate the ruptures on a local level since it was emphasized that there should exist one form of public library only.

Although local initiatives from municipal decision-makers were to be made the most of in view of the resistance to place libraries under national governance, this clearly points to the centralizing movement which is actualized again with the formation of a national strategy of libraries. Even so, national decision-makers have traditionally refrained from dictating the course of action locally (Frenander 2012, p. 313f).

The main course of development during the 20th century has been the demand for coordination and collaboration. According to Frenander (2012), this is repeatedly expressed in government propositions and investigations. Even if libraries are thought to offer well-adjusted services, they are always thought possible to improve. Increased cooperation and coordination have been regarded the most important means for improvement. This, in turn, means that centralization of the library sector, is often emphasized (Frenander 2012, p.

81). Indeed, the underlying motif of coordinating the library system was to make it more efficient. From a critical point of view, it is not difficult to see why this strive has been questioned from time to time. After all, I argue that at its roots is a view to rationalize the library sector not so much because of but nevertheless in accordance with, the market principles that have made their way into the historical development of the public welfare system at large.

Torstensson (2009), who describes different periods of intensification as regards the library spirit in Sweden, concludes that these periods are characterized by “increasing political and social commitment and change”

(2009, p. 13). This may well be true of today’s digital transformation of library practices, where again there is a need to tackle new demands and expectations within the library sector. Likewise, LIS researcher Joacim Hansson (2006) concludes in his study of joint-use libraries, that the institutional identity of libraries is subject to change due to the complex process of collaboration between different library units. Hansson also points out that

The boundaries between the different parts of the library sector have diminished. It has become more common, both within the library community and outside it, to talk of library and information services in a more holistic way than before. This is where the establishment of joint use libraries comes in as a manifestation of a new way of deﬁning library and information services politically (2006, p. 562).

This is an interesting observation for this thesis and the reason I refer to Hansson (2006) is that, as far as a networked library is concerned, it points to the way the entire library system is to some extent redefined:

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[It] reformulates [the] overall mission statements into something we have not seen before—a redeﬁnition and reformulation that […] occurs in the establishment of joint use libraries (Hansson 2006, p. 559).

The practices of combined or joint-use libraries are relevant to the understanding of the concept of a networked library as a matter of cooperation between different kinds of libraries. They may clarify the organizational motives for libraries to cooperate within and across this system and hence corresponds to the issues of significance for the identity of libraries and library professionals and the legitimacy of a networked library. The following studies on the history of joint-use libraries as forms of cooperation is meant to transfer these insights as far as it is possible onto the networked library as seen from a broader perspective.

Kathleen R.T. Imhoff (2001) describes the opportunities and challenges when it comes to partnerships between different types of libraries. The reason I included this study is that there is much to be learned from joint-use library organizations in the context of a national strategy aiming for a unified and largely networked library system. A joint-use library is defined in this case as

“two or more libraries of different types coming together to provide services […]” (2001, p. 18). The combined school and public libraries of the 1950s and 1960s are described as predecessors in an American context, although these eventually had to close to the public due to a cut in financial support.

As the so-called charter schools, schools run by private agents, began to emerge in the United States in the 1990s, new partnerships were formed with public libraries (2001, p. 18). There has been a long tradition of cooperation between public and educational libraries at various levels of the system. Also, there is a model of collaboration between libraries with a long history in Sweden – especially at a regional level.

In regard of the growing emphasis on cooperation and increased struggle for resources, there are many reasons for joint-use libraries. Among the advantages with cooperating libraries is, according to Imhoff (2001), the fact that more library resources are provided as well as more diverse collections.

There may also be benefits related to the physical location and to the recruitment of library professionals in search of experience of working in different types of libraries. The challenges include not only the strategic planning, administration and financing of joint-use libraries but also issues of technology integration, physical facilities, and staffing. In addition, there are the challenges of identity, governance, and access to information (2001, p.

23ff). In this case, I will focus on the latter which are most central to the purposes of this thesis. Although there are of course differences between the American library system and libraries in Sweden as well as a temporal discrepancy in that Imhoff’s article was written nearly twenty years ago, I consider these general aspects of cooperation to be applicable in a Swedish context as well.

Firstly, identity is described as a matter of the key messages to be communicated by the joint-use library. The joint-use library is a melding of institutional cultures; at the same time, it is important that each institution is recognized and retains its own identity (2001, p. 31). Secondly, governance

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is defined as the most important factor for success. It is a matter of how decisions are to be made and how authority is to be structured. The question is whether control should be shared or held separately by the cooperating libraries. Finally, access to information and materials often involves a melding of materials, which implies a better use of resources and a truly integrated collection (2001, p. 28). Indeed, the success of a joint-use library depends on its ability to balance cooperation with the need for autonomy, which is useful to keep in mind in order to understand the premises of a networked library.

Karen A. Dornseif (2001) refers to a similar model of library integration as Imhoff (2001), in saying that integration may range from sharing the same building (minimal) to dividing responsibilities (selective) to a merging or unifying mission (full). Whatever arrangement, it is a balancing act (Dornseif 2001, p. 104). According to this author, each decision made in a partnership impacts the other library or libraries. Although they retain some level of control in certain areas – for instance, there may be separate library cards and classification systems – libraries must also give up control in other areas and become dependent on the partnering library (2001, p. 113). As the same author underscores, there is no ideal model of a joint-use library – each reflects the unique combination of diverse institutional cultures and mission statements. Again, facilities, resources and staffing are said to be the main advantages of a joint-use library (2001, p. 107f). These are valuable insights for understanding how a networked library must consist of separate but jointly related entities in order for a successful collaboration to take place. Dornseif’s (2001) study is thus important for understanding the implications of library cooperation and collaboration in the wider library landscape – whose constituent parts will be dealt with next.

2.2 The contemporary library geography

In order to grasp the implications of a networked library and its conditions of possibility, it is necessary to have an idea of the present structure of the Swedish library system as it looks in the 2000s and onwards. I refer here to what Eriksson & Zetterlund (2008) describe and elaborate on in their article as the “library geography” or the wider system of everything that belongs to the world of libraries. Thus, the authors refer to the library sector as a whole – including its “basic institutions, organizational elements, main actors and basic relations” (2008, p. 1). In short, it charts the various kinds of libraries and how they are conceptualized in practice, not least in the social context in which they are situated. Even though library systems are difficult to describe since they are dynamic and constantly moving in different directions, I consider the way in which the authors describe the library geography as relevant for the purposes of this study. A geographical perspective is intended to map out the Swedish library system and the way it is internally structured.

It thus corresponds to the question of the constitution of a networked library in a wider setting and the institutional identity of libraries.

According to the NE online encyclopedia, a library is usually distinguished in terms of what and which groups of users it is for – meaning that research

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libraries are different from public libraries and school libraries (www.ne.se, 2019). This is a duality that has existed for a long time and may be considered characteristic of the formal organization of the Swedish library sector (Enmark 1994, p. 35, in Eriksson & Zetterlund 2008, p. 3). One of the categories of libraries and library services is described by the same authors as a hybrid or combination of different library types and this is what I argue that most of the research on networked libraries has concentrated on. Other categories are based on the organizational affiliation, area of responsibility, physical or geographical location as well as the functional aspects of libraries (2008, p. 5). However, it is important to notice that these categories should not be understood as obvious or static, given the rate of development within the library sector.

Furthermore, geography is understood in this case as “a delineation or systematic arrangement of constituent elements” (merriam-webster.com, 2019). In other words, it may be used as a concept for the makeup or configuration of the Swedish library sector. Again, one may object to the notion of charting the library sector in its entirety, because of its complexity and multitude of activities. As with Eriksson & Zetterlund’s (2008) overview, my intention is not to offer a complete image of the library system but to make it possible to orient oneself within the system and discern the potential intersections between different kinds of libraries. What may speak against the notion of a networked library is the fractions and fissures that seem to characterize the system, which on the one hand implies that there is no comprehensive library organization. On the other hand, this may be understood as one of the reasons why there have been calls for a national strategy of libraries, a shared political and administrative setting for library work (2008, p. 9).

There are four geographical terrains in the model offered by Eriksson &

Zetterlund (2008): a central versus local terrain referring to the reach of library activities, and a public versus private terrain referring to whether libraries are run as part of the public sector or by private enterprises or various kinds of organizations standing on their own. Most of Swedish libraries belong to the public sector – with about 1100 public libraries, according to the national library statistics (Kungliga Biblioteket, 2018). In many respects the very fundament of the Swedish library sector is local in that our legally required access to a public library is met in a municipal context (Eriksson &

Zetterlund 2008, p. 9). In the local public terrain, we also find various kinds of educational or school libraries as well as libraries within health and social welfare. The latter are managed by the county or regional councils. Finally, the regional libraries are mainly administrative and strategic units that assist and support the public libraries in providing media and information as well as further training for library professionals. The same goes for the information centers, which belong to the depository libraries that serve libraries rather than users (Eriksson & Zetterlund 2008, p. 9). As I understand it, it is within the public terrain that a networked library may be most visible – locally as well as centrally.

In the public central terrain then, we find the government agencies with an overall responsibility for the maintenance of Swedish libraries. They are all expected to realize the political decisions made by the government. Together

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with the various school and education agencies as well as the state-governed universities – including the seven responsible research libraries that cover specific subject areas – the special libraries may be said to belong to the public central terrain (Eriksson & Zetterlund 2008, p. 12f). Whereas research libraries usually retain an autonomous position as part of a higher education institute, special libraries are often placed under the authority of KB and Kulturrådet (The Swedish Arts Council). The latter is an agency that promotes and supports cultural development and its political realization in Sweden.

National agencies retain a supervisory role, although they are often said to support rather than control the library sector at large.

KB is assigned the task to collect and preserve everything published in Sweden as well as foreign literature with a Swedish affiliation. Also, KB is central to the national coordination of library services. In this context, there are efforts to achieve a shared use of resources among libraries so that all libraries will not need to hold the same resources. A long tradition of coordination and cooperation, mainly by means of inter-library loans, is understood as a cornerstone of the Swedish library system – although interlibrary loans have been criticized for being complicated and expensive, they are also a fundament of the notion of a networked library in that library collections may be used as a common resource across the country (Eriksson

& Zetterlund 2008, p. 12f). However, again the internal structure is rather divided despite the various agreements that bring together a host of library services.

Finally, the private central and local terrain consists on the one hand of corporate libraries, vendors and commercial distributors of library materials such as publishing companies and bookstores. Furthermore, there are the professional associations within the library sector. Interest groups and organizations operate both in Sweden and abroad and The Swedish Library Association often act as a consultation body in policy issues related to the library sector. On the other hand, information-intensive companies on the local level may for instance keep internal units whose task is not primarily to hold collections of documents but to be directed towards information retrieval on demand. However, there are not the same expectations on transparency and accessibility as in the case with public libraries (2008, p. 13ff). For the same reason, libraries within the private central and local terrain are not required in the same way to be part of a networked library.

Eriksson & Zetterlund (2008) point out that initiatives to lift the barriers between different kinds of libraries and library services are mainly digital in character – thus creating a kind of networked library or Library 2.0 that is independent of geographical location. Indeed, digital collections are said to best accommodate the potential of today’s information and communication technology (ICT). The digital environment opens the way for the possibility to bridge the boundaries between the local and central level. There are several projects underway to allocate responsibility for digitization and facilitate exchange of information by means of digital platforms (2008, p. 16). For the same reason, a networked library is also understood as digital in character – it is even synonymous with the concept of digital libraries. However, it is important to acknowledge the role of humans, not just technology, in the context of digital libraries. Vicki L. O’Day and Bonnie A. Nardi (2003) speak

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in metaphorical terms of digital libraries as an ecology that sees to the inter- dependencies between people, practices, and technology. As the same authors define an information ecology, it thus comprises “systems of people, technologies, practices, and values” (2003, p. 71). Such an ecology comes close to what I understand as connecting the physical and the digital world by social and technological means. As I see it, a networked library is not entirely digital because of the social and cultural aspects involved in collaboration and cooperation between different kinds of libraries as well as library use in a networked world.

2.3 Libraries and library use in a networked world

A social perspective is meant to put a networked library in a wider context, also defining the concept of network in tandem with the subsequent theory chapter. Sociologist Manuel Castells (1999) argues that the function that dominates the information age is the way networks determine the conditions of social practices. According to this author, a network is defined as an open structure, a set of nodes united and infinitely extended. The power of the networks themselves are stronger than the specific interests that are expressed through these networks (1999, p. 520ff). Castells (1999) thus talks about the emergence of a network(ed) society in which there are not only large amounts of information but in which information is the very currency or means of power.

As Felix Stalder (2006) describes it, the network logic refers to the way

networks have emerged as the primary form of organization for (dominant) social processes, driven by informational capitalism, managed through the reorganization of power and governance, and shaped by values advanced in, and challenged mounted by, social movements” (2006, p. 167).

The particulars of these networked forms of governance may be seen as the basis of Castells’s (1999) theory of the network society. Processes of networked governance transform and redefine the framework in which people and organizations operate – explained by the way “networks constitute not only themselves but also their own, specific context” (Stalder 2006, p. 194).

What distinguishes the networks of today from traditional ones is, according to Castells (1999), their flexibility and capacity to decentralize, whereas there is at the same time a difficulty of coordination towards a common objective.

Still, information and communication technology has created networks which are both centralized and decentralized at the same time – and it is in this respect that the theory of Castells (1999) contributes to the understanding of a networked library. The impact of networks is due to the interactions between their constitutive elements rather than being imposed or determined from above (Stalder 2006, p. 181ff). The way organizational flexibility is combined with coordination thus responds to processes of decentralization. This is important to keep in mind when discussing centralization efforts on part of KB and the opposing standpoints in response to these efforts. It may also be

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considered a useful aspect in relation to the national strategy of libraries, implying that a networked library may also focus around a common project and a shared culture against which internal negotiations take place. At the same time, the kind of order invoked here is nondeterministic and open to change. This clearly has a bearing on my understanding of a networked library as a complex and dynamic entity.

As to the logic of a network society, there are two dynamics at the cornerstone of Castells’s (1999) theory: informationalism defined as the material configuration of information processing through advanced technologies, and the space of flows which I understand as the floating connections or disconnections between networks as spatial expressions (Stalder 2006, p.

186f). Thus, we have information and the spatial organization of this information. In accordance with the theoretical perspective on discourse applied in this study, the overall network is complex, unstable, and constantly renegotiating the positions of its elements. This is because networks or the networked society is not so much a community of shared values and interests as “contradictory social structures enacted in conflicts and negotiations among diverse and often opposing social actors” (Castells 2009, p. 14). Thus – even though information networks are held together by a common frame of reference – conflict runs at the core of Castells’s (2009) theory of the networked society as a site of power struggle.

Like Castells (1999; 2009), Christine L. Borgman (2000) refers to an information infrastructure as a web of information practices (2000, p. 47).

This is described as a highly decentralized and transparent structure that is both producing and a product of the practices and technologies in which it is embedded. The local and bottom-up character of a networked library is emphasized, both because no single entity could impose order upon an overall system and because it serves a vast and heterogenous community of users (2000, p. 71; 209). The way an infrastructure of information-related tasks and activities is characterized by its individual constituents may be considered an indicative and eloquent example of the way a networked library is not a single entity controlled by a single organization but rather a set of interconnected services and access points that transcend spatial as well as temporal boundaries.

It has from time to time been claimed that physical libraries will eventually be replaced by digital ones due to the technical advances in human communication ever since the invention of movable type. However, new technologies have supplemented rather than replaced our ways of doing things – whether it is communicating, learning, working or entertaining ourselves. We do not adopt or adapt to new technologies for the sake of it, but because they offer some benefits in relation to our interests, behaviors and needs (Borgman 2000, p. ix-x). There is not as much known about how and why various devices are applied as the mere fact that they are. In order to understand the role of libraries in a networked society, it is not enough with a narrow and simplified view of searching for information by using any information technology. We must know in what ways an innovation is considered useful and how this is influenced by previous practices and the perceived characteristics of technologies (2000, p. 9f). There may, after all,

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be more implicit and not as outspoken motives behind our ways of using technology.

Sometimes it has also been suggested that information seekers are becoming less and less dependent upon libraries for access to resources. Yet, libraries are more than collections – they exist in many forms and encompass many different functions and activities organized on behalf of a specifiable user community. For the same reason, there has been a changeover to user- centered library services rather than their being based solely on the collections (2000, p. 181). Some LIS studies indeed confirm a shift from a library logic to a user logic. It is considered more important to understand user motivations, especially in digital, collaborative, and interactive environments, than understanding the library system itself. Donald O. Case and Lisa Givens (2016) point out that systematic research on usage of information channels and systems dates at least a century back but early research seldom studied the actual users of these systems and channels. In the 1970s, focus then shifted onto patrons as finders, creators, interpreters, and users of information (2016, p. 7ff). Thus, what has been focused since then is people and their information practices rather than systems, as well as the way users make sense of, learn about and cope with information rather than what kinds of documents they use, how much or why.

Possibly, another reason why statements about users are privileged is that libraries are found at a stage of transformation towards a more customer- oriented and top-down, market-driven approach to user needs compared to a non-hierarchical bottom-up approach. As Judith Mavodza (2013) puts it:

“Patron demand now takes precedence to library logic. This is similar to a product marketing perspective where customer needs are always paramount”

(2013, p. 137). A market discourse generally refers to an underlying economic logic permeating contemporary culture and giving primacy to market practices. Economic thinking is equaled in this case with common sense.

According to LIS researchers Nanna Kann-Christensen and Jack Andersen (2008), such a logic may be present even though it does not explicitly express economic interests. It is critical that libraries are aware of the way they describe themselves as well as create value by way of making a difference in the life of the users rather than subordinating themselves to economic measures alone. This is because there is a dimension of a market rationality running in the background, which makes libraries and library services subject to the perceived imperative of always having to prove its economic value in order to be ascribed social and political legitimacy from the point of view of the surrounding world (2008, p. 208; 220f).

Even though a library may be defined and legitimized with regard to the practices of selecting, collecting, organizing, preserving and making accessible information on behalf of a community of users, the question remains how this is actually done. The potential of a networked library lies mainly in empowering people by enhancing their ability to create, seek and use information. Importantly, the services must be designed not for specialists but for every citizen (Borgman 2000, p 56). This in turn, requires that information services be characterized by connectivity of information contents and services, and that these services are usable to the extent that they are accessible and easy to navigate. Information technology is a means for

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sharing knowledge rather than a goal per se. What is most significant is how the information infrastructure becomes visible only when it fails to work (2000, p. 19). As long as it works well, people depend on it and perhaps do not think much about it, but it may become critical as soon as the system breaks down. This points to the constructed character of a networked library, which will be further explicated in the next chapter as part of an integrated package of theory and method.

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3 Method of approach

In this chapter, I deal with the analytical framework of the present study. I first describe the general character of my approach in order to further discuss its theoretical underpinnings. I then present the ontological key concepts that form the background of my analyses together with the analytical tools. I describe the operationalization of these tools and the way they were applied in the analytical procedure. Finally, I critically consider the chosen methodology and its implications for the contribution of my analyses.

3.1 Document analysis

Strategic plans like the national library strategy are a kind of official documents which may be approached by means of so-called document analysis. Document analysis is a type of qualitative research directed towards a wide range of sources of data, more specifically defined by Glenn A. Bowen (2009) as a systematic procedure for evaluating different kinds of documents.

Like other analytical methods in qualitative research, document analysis is a matter of interpreting data in order to “elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge” (Corbin & Strauss 2008, in Bowen 2009, p. 27; see also Rapley, 2007). The document analysis may be understood in this case as a form of content analysis since I categorize the empirical material and study it from the point of view of what is here considered to be thematic clusters of meaningful statements.

Among the advantages of documents as a choice of material is the fact that they are often available online. Thus, emphasis is often placed on documents

‘out there’. Another advantage is, Alan Bryman (2016) states, that documents are non-reactive in the sense that they are not specifically produced for social research (Bryman 2016, p. 546). Non-reactive research thus refers to a certain unawareness on part of the population being studied. According to Bowen (2009), document analysis is also a highly selective method – and due to the selectiveness, there is at the same time a certain risk of bias on part of the research subject. A selective bias may sometimes be the case where a collection of documents is incomplete or, as in this case, where only a fraction of the material is selected for analysis. Besides, documents may be lacking in detail since they are not produced for research purposes (2009, p. 31f).

However, the selection of empirical material reflects the object of study of interest to this thesis and is thus focused on those parts relevant for the research questions at hand. I also regard the 84 documents studied as visionary documents on the immanent future of libraries, which is a reason why they were relevant and interesting objects of research.

The process of selecting and analyzing documents begins with the creation of a list of documents to be studied. This was a relatively straightforward task, since all the documents were available as pdf-files on the KB blog. In order to ensure a high degree of reliability, it is important to evaluate the purpose of the documents in order to discover potential biases and to pay attention to the bias one might bring into the research oneself (O’Leary 2014). In this

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case, I study official documents which may to some extent display a bias in so far as the more pronounced role of the KB as a national library is emphasized from the point of view of KB whereas other agents on the library arena may take an opposite standpoint. The authenticity or credibility of the documents have not been ethically considered since they were officially published on the KB blog and may thus be assumed to have been adequately assessed and evaluated. The present analysis will not so much focus on the sources of the documents as exploring the implications of their contents, which should reduce the risk of bias.

An interesting point of view to consider is also that of documentality, described by Hansson (2016) as capturing aspects of documents relating to those practices that they are part in shaping. Indeed, I would say that the strategy documents are performative in their way of staking out a common future of libraries on a national as well as regional and local level. In other words, documents are fundamentally practice-oriented in that they, through their design, may actively influence the course of events in a certain direction (Lund & Skare, in Hansson 2016, p. 5). I am further inspired by the claim that the understanding of social institutions and the shared practices of these institutions depend on different types of documents. In order to methodologically distinguish between documents, Hansson (2016) suggests that we search for statements indicating definitions of what is here considered to be a shared library identity and what is considered to be the overall obligations of libraries towards users in particular and society in general (2016, p 8). In this case, I study the interrelations between various strategies and strategic statements put forward in the documents at hand. The present approach may thus be defined according to Bryman (2016) as a research design whose purpose is to study a set of contrasting cases with more or less identical methods:

we can understand social phenomena better when they are compared in relation to two or more meaningfully contrasting cases or situations (2016, p. 65).

As previously mentioned though, I do not so much compare the documents as I study thematic patterns in the documents from a holistic perspective. The document analysis, which mainly refers in this case to the kind of material to be analyzed, is combined with elements of thematic content analysis, meaning that I have categorized my interpretations of the empirical material. A thematic approach is described as involving

a careful, more focused re-reading and review of the data. The reviewer takes a closer look at the selected data and performs coding and category construction, based on the data’s characteristics, to uncover themes pertinent to a phenomenon (Bowen 2009, p. 32).

In this case, the main purpose of a thematic approach is to ask what the strategy documents are about and how this may be understood in relation to the concept of a networked library. Thus, a thematic focus of the study means that I have looked for recurrent patterns in the documents at hand. As I see it,

Constructions of a Networked Library: A Document Analysis of the Proposal for a National Strategy of Libraries and its Reception across the Swedish Library Sector