Swedish Library Policy and Community Librarianship

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine how Swedish national library policy has evolved and been influenced by ideas associated with community librarianship. Additionally, the collaboration between public libraries and the movement-based popular education, which shares common roots with public libraries and emphasizes community building, is explored. The article is structured around two research questions, addressed through a qualitatively oriented document study of key documents in national library policy. The state initiative "Strengthened Libraries" is also analyzed. The investigation reveals that Swedish library policy has been significantly influenced by community librarianship in recent years, expressing several of its central ideas, such as community building, diversification of activities, and the library's role as a place. It also indicates that public libraries have some collaboration with movement-based popular education but that libraries' interest in expanding this collaboration appears limited. No previous research has examined the impact of community librarianship on Swedish library policy. The relationship between public libraries and movement-based popular education in study associations is also an underexplored area. This study provides some insight into the current situation, but further research is needed.

Introduction

In a country like Sweden, where public libraries began to develop about 120 years ago and became part of the emerging, modern welfare state, a crucial question is how the state has tried to control local library work and the roles of public libraries, and how this control is exercised today. In what way has the change in the perception of library roles over the past half century, as reflected in the concept of community librarianship, left an impact on the state's governance of public libraries? And what does the historical connection to the free educational work of NGOs and popular movements—organized in different study associations—mean for public libraries' work today, in particular with community building? That is what this article is about.

Community librarianship is a concept that has been used primarily in a British public library context. Alistair Black and Dave Muddiman describe in Understanding Community Librarianship: The Public Library in Post-modern Britain (1997) how it emerged as an entirely new philosophy of public library work, strongly linked to collaboration with users and different local communities, and particularly with the underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. Its roots can be traced back to the political engagement of the 1970s and the perception that public libraries were too focused on the needs of the middle class and upper classes, with the heterosexual male as the norm. Critical views were expressed both externally, from various societal groups that felt their needs were not adequately met, and internally within the library profession, where there was a demand for library services better aligned with the actual needs of different groups in the local community.

Community librarianship emphasizes the democratic and social role of public libraries, and the need for broad collaboration with users and community groups on library service issues. An important objective is to actively seek collaboration also with non-users, to broaden the library activities into new areas outside of what is traditionally expected from the library, and to be flexible in order to meet the needs of new groups. Outreach activities are important, as is the library's role as a social meeting place with various kinds of events and activities—preferably organized in collaboration with different external actors such as community groups, NGOs, etc. To summarize, community librarianship means a completely new, reversed role of librarians. Instead of the traditional expert's top-down perspective, "'community' librarians would operate as educators, facilitators and advocates for local culture [and] use their 'expertise' to enable local people to make sense of and utilise the increasingly complex and systematic global information environment" (Black and Muddiman 1997, 61).

Black and Muddiman's book was written in the late 1990s. They note that community librarianship was at its strongest in library practice during the first half of the 1980s but had to struggle in the neoliberal market thinking prevalent in the late 1980s and in the 1990s, with economic cutbacks in the welfare sector. Although the ideas still persisted, much of the activities associated with community librarianship was dismantled during austerity efforts, often reverting to activities based on a more traditional view of the library's role.

However, much has happened since the turn of the millennium, and public libraries have faced new challenges related to the rapid development of information and communication technologies and to social and political changes of various kinds. Today, it is essential to adapt operations to new situations, needs, and expectations, while maintaining a focus on climate, environmental, economic, and social sustainability (Jochumsen, Johnston, and Vårheim 2022). Library legitimacy has become important in this context (Larsen, Kann-Rasmussen, and Eckerdal 2022) and has, among other things, raised questions about community building. In times when many organizations compete for public funds, libraries must demonstrate that they reach out broadly socially and attract societal groups that traditionally have not been library users (Johnston, Jochumsen, and Edquist 2022). As a consequence of this development, the concept of community librarianship has gained new relevance.

Another important concept of this article is what we call folkbildning in Swedish. The word folk means "people." Bildning comes from the German word bildung, which has no exact equivalent in English, but folkbildning is often translated as "popular education" (Berg and Edquist 2017; Gustavsson 2013). Sometimes the translations "liberal education" or "public enlightenment work" are also used. This article uses the term "popular education." The question is how changes in the perception of library roles represented by community librarianship, are reflected in Swedish library policy. And to what extent public libraries have joined forces with the extensive movement-based popular educational work in Sweden, with which they share common roots, to reach new user groups.

Research Questions and Methods

The study is mainly qualitative, and the overall purpose is broken down into the two following research questions:RQ1:

How has the state governance of public libraries evolved over time, and to what extent does it reflect a change in the perception of library roles, connecting to community librarianship?

RQ2:

To what extent are values connecting to community librarianship emphasized in the government's initiative Strengthened Libraries, and what role does collaboration with the movement-based popular education of the study associations play in the local development projects funded in Strengthened Libraries?

RQ1 is based on an analysis of the current and previous Library Act, the draft library strategy created by the Royal Library, the government's national library strategy and the instructions of the Royal Library for the development of regional and local library plans. Both Library Acts and the government bills for the acts are openly available online. Current library plans for all municipalities and regions in the country, along with instructions on how the plans should be developed and what they should contain as well as a report on the Royal Library's follow-up on the plans, are accessible on the Royal Library's website. The national library strategy for 2022–2025 is also available here, as is the draft library strategy.

For Strengthened Libraries, which ran from 2018 to 2023, funds were allocated in the national budget for local library development work. Municipalities could then apply for grants for local development projects from the Swedish Arts Council, the government agency that administrated the initiative. The Arts Council assessed the applications and decided which ones to fund. RQ2 focuses on the directives given by the government for Strengthened Libraries, on the published reports from the Arts Council on the results and on the applications from the municipalities. Directives and reports are accessible from the Arts Council's website. A list with brief descriptions of all local projects has been provided by the Arts Council. Local library events are illustrated through examples from the website of Uppsala Public Library. Figures from the Swedish library statistics are available through the website of the Royal Library.

Literature Review

There is no translation into Swedish of community librarianship, and no research exists on Swedish conditions that relate directly to this concept (Hansson 2005). Still, the changing roles of public libraries has been the subject of many studies in Scandinavia, although none have focused specifically on the library policy in relation to the changing library roles. According to Rydbeck (2022), the governance of the Swedish library sector has increased over time. The current ambition is to view all public libraries as a common national resource instead of—as earlier was the case—considering research libraries and public libraries as two separate systems. Rydbeck and Johnston (2020) analyze and compare the current library legislation in eight European countries, noting that Sweden is the only country that explicitly includes active citizenship.

Frenander (2012) and Söderholm and Nolin (2015) describe three phases in the societal engagement of public libraries, where the first around the turn of the twentieth century focused on literacy and popular education. The second, during the late 1960s and the 1970s, was characterized, like in the United Kingdom, by radical work for the social integration of underserved groups. The period from the turn of the millennium to the present has, according to Söderholm and Nolin (2015), been characterized by "the social turn" emphasizing the library's social role from a broad perspective, as a community hub with open social spaces for all, characterized by diversity. According to Hylland, Kann-Rasmussen, and Vårheim (2022), the contributions of libraries to society have changed and evolved. They have broadened their ambitions, and their mission today is more extensive and more general. Duelund (2003) discusses, in his analysis of the development of Scandinavian cultural policy, the concept of the arm's length principle.

Hedemark (2009) distinguishes three different discourses in the debate on Swedish public libraries during the period from 1970 to 2006, where the dominant discourse throughout the whole period was the "book discourse," primarily associated with printed books and good quality fiction. During the 1970s, the "community center discourse" was important, calling for public libraries to become community centers for various cultural and political activities. The "information mediation discourse" appeared in the 1980s and was present until the end of the research period. It argued that public libraries should prioritize new technology and engage primarily in mediating information. Hedemark has also analyzed how the view of children's reading is expressed in literature policy and in public libraries' reading promotion work among children (Hedemark 2017, 2020).

In summary, the 1960s and 1970s were a period when the traditional cultural policies were questioned in Sweden, leading to a discussion about the roles of public libraries. Demands for change were made to reach non-users—that is, much of the same attitude that underpinned the growth of community librarianship in the United Kingdom. Outreach activities, mainly in the form of workplace libraries, became an important Swedish strategy in this work (Herder 1986), before the market-oriented buy-and-sell ideology took over in the public sector, ending much of this outreach work.

An important question in the discussion on community librarianship is, of course, how users perceive the roles of public libraries. There is not much research on this concerning Swedish conditions. However, one of the studies in the international research project "The ALM-Field, Digitalization, and the Public Sphere (ALMPUB)," funded by the Norwegian Research Council, focused on the user perspective. In a survey, a total of 6,000 individuals in six European countries were asked about their perceptions of the roles of public libraries, and Sweden was one of the participating countries (Audunson et al. 2019). The impact of the changing roles of libraries on basic and continuing education for librarians is also an underexplored research area from a Swedish perspective. However, in connection with the proposal for a national library strategy (mentioned more below), a research anthology was published where representatives of all universities in Sweden offering Library and Information Science programs described how the education of librarians has changed and developed over time, and the current development needs they faced (Hansson et al. 2018).

The development and changes over time in the definition of the concept of folkbildning (popular education) from the early 1900s to today are discussed in Gustavsson (2013) and in Berg and Edquist (2017). The main purpose of the latter is an analysis of the state's control of study associations through the conditions for state grants to study circles. The common roots of public libraries and study associations have been described by several researchers, for example by Berg and Edquist (2017) and Rydbeck (2022). Their changing relations have been discussed on several occasions, but there is little research. The issue was addressed in 1997 in a research anthology where Klasson (1997) discusses the decreasing significance of popular education over time within the public library sector and distinguishes three different librarian roles. In the guardian role, the librarian safeguards good books and culture from a top-down perspective. In the dialogue role, cooperation on equal terms is developed with new communities and active user groups. In the market model, the library's offerings are seen as a commodity, and the librarian ends up in the buying-and-selling role. Zetterlund (1997) notes that the role of popular education in public libraries is not particularly clear, and there seems to be uncertainty about what has actually been and is the library's mission related to popular education. Rydbeck (2016) compares the number of book clubs in public libraries and study associations.

Popular Education and Public Libraries—The Historical Background

Modern libraries for ordinary users began to emerge in Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century, in close connection to the concept of folkbildning, popular education. Initially, many local NGOs connected to different popular movements (mostly the temperance and the labor movements in the beginning) founded study circle libraries as a part of their popular educational work, where they placed the books used in their study work for others to read. When these study circle libraries were most numerous in the late 1930s, there were about 5,500 in the country, open to the public and mainly in rural areas and small towns (Berg and Edquist 2017). Simultaneously municipalities began establishing public libraries, inspired mainly by American public libraries. Over time, the study circle libraries were phased out or taken over by the municipalities, and a network of municipal public libraries was created throughout the country.

However, it took a long time before Sweden got its first Library Act—much longer than in the other Scandinavian countries (Rydbeck and Johnston 2020). Instead, government control was exercised through the government grants introduced from 1905 onwards, which meant that local libraries could receive funds if they met certain requirements. The principle of free loans was established early on. The grant was initially given as books for a certain value, which had to be selected from catalogs established by the state with "suitable" titles (Rydbeck 2022). Eventually, the rule was introduced that only one library per municipality could receive subsidy from the state, and the demands for professionalization of the library work gradually increased, which was the explanation for the disappearance of the NGO-owned libraries, in favor of the municipality-owned libraries.

Despite this, the NGO-based popular education expanded, and also became an important component building the modern welfare state. It was organized in various national study associations—member organizations with slightly different ideological profiles. The labor movement formed one study association. Trade unions for white-collar professions, churches, the farmers' movement, and the temperance movement formed others. The main duty of the study associations was to administrate the local study circle work. From a methodological perspective this was based on self-education with the book and the library as important tools and emphasized the social and political function of the study work. Knowledge development would take place through democratic cooperation and social community, without any professional teacher or leader, and with the individual and group perspective equally important (Gustavsson 2013). From a community-building perspective, the study circle method became important and at the same time something very typical for Sweden.

While the municipal public libraries early on had professionalization of the library work as a central objective, with librarians deciding on activities and book purchases based on their education and professional position, the study associations' circle work took a slightly different path, where the participants' perspectives and needs were the starting point, and much of the work was carried out on an amateur basis. However, it must be emphasized that there were also intellectual elites within the movements with a strong influence of the overall development of the popular education from a top-down perspective, and there were different competing educational ideals. The state also set the framework through the conditions for grants, which meant state control (Berg and Edquist 2017).

The period after the Second World War until the 1980s was an expansive period for the public libraries. State and municipal finances were good, and during the 1950s and 1960s many new libraries were built throughout the country, new branches opened, collections grew, and some outreach activities began. In 1965, state subsidies for local public libraries were abolished. Municipal self-government has strong traditions in Sweden, and instead a general state subsidy was introduced that the municipalities themselves had to distribute among their different areas of responsibility—something they were deemed capable of after a few municipal merger reforms that made them considerably fewer and more economically viable.

The new order meant that state control of public libraries practically ceased, and it became the responsibility of municipalities to decide what library services they wanted. However, the activities continued to develop according to the consensus model that had gradually emerged since the beginning of century, with focus on meeting the individual reader's need of quality literature for individual reading. Those who also wanted to discuss their reading experiences with others in an organized form, had to turn to the study associations' circle activities.

The government continued to finance the county libraries, and at times there was also the opportunity for municipalities to apply for time-limited, smaller grants for the development of specific activities, e.g. workplace libraries and bookmobiles (Herder 1986; Rydbeck 2022)—a way for the state to still try to influence the development of the local library work and broaden the activities to reach new user groups.

Even though there was a period in the 1970s when the so-called, all-activity discourse dominated the debate about libraries (Hedemark 2009), social activities and events were few in public libraries before the turn of the millennium. The ones organized often focused on children, such as storytelling sessions, which had existed since the early days of public libraries (Hedemark 2017). However, much local educational and cultural activities took place simultaneously in the study associations' study circles. The volume of the study circle work also grew significantly after World War II and during the second part of the twentieth century, mainly thanks to generous state grants, but also through grants from municipalities and regions. And from having focused only on the studying of books, the concept of popular education was expanded in the late 1940s, meaning that practical and aesthetical activities also became eligible for funding (Berg and Edquist 2017). This broadened the study associations' activities, while the importance of public libraries for the study circle work decreased.

In the 1980s, the relations between public libraries and study associations were investigated in an official report. The conclusions were that the contacts were weak, and that study circles almost never used the libraries for their meetings or as an information resource (Folkbibliotek och folkbildning i samverkan 1982). Some attempts at joint local collaboration projects were made, reported in an anthology published in 1983 by BIS (Libraries in Society), a socialist organization for library employees (Ljunggren 1983). However, the collaboration never took off seriously (Löfdahl and Törngren 2007).

A consequence of the new cultural policy of the 1970s was that the national responsibility for public library issues was moved from the National Board of Education to the newly formed Swedish Arts Council. From now on, public libraries were regarded primarily as culture, while the study associations stayed and were primarily regarded as adult education (Rydbeck 2022). This reorganization also contributed to the two institutions, despite their common roots, drifting apart in local cultural and popular educational work. The social dimension and community building took a much more prominent place in the study associations' circle work than in the public libraries.

The Library Acts

As long as economic times were good in municipalities, public library activities operated according to the traditional consensus model. However, as times became tougher in the 1980s and market-oriented thinking within the public sector grew stronger in Sweden, public libraries were affected. In certain political circles, there was now a desire for users to start paying for services. In one municipality, the responsibility for the library services was outsourced to private entrepreneurs with less than favorable results—the company soon went bankrupt, and the municipality had to reassume responsibility. Other municipalities later tried the model and succeeded better (Rydbeck 2022).

This development led to the passage of the first Swedish Library Act in Parliament (Bibliotekslagen 1996:1596 1996). It came into effect in 1997 and was a relatively short document that regulated the entire publicly funded library system, not just public libraries but also academic libraries, school libraries, hospital libraries, and various types of special libraries. It was a so-called framework law, meaning it only established certain general rules and principles—this was to avoid challenging municipal self-governance too much. Furthermore, the so-called "arm's length principle" had long been applied in the cultural sector. This practice involves policymakers setting broader political goals and strategies but leaving the design of specific activities to professionals—in this case librarians (Duelund 2003).

The Library Act affirmed that all citizens should have access to libraries, and there must be public libraries in all municipalities. It was the responsibility of municipalities to finance these operations, and the principle of free book loans would apply. Furthermore, it was stipulated that public libraries should promote interest in reading and literature, information, enlightenment, education, and cultural activities in general, and also provide database information. Special attention should be given to certain groups, specifically mentioning disabled persons, immigrants, and "other minorities," as well as children—by offering resources adapted to their needs. In other words, there was a special emphasis on mediation of various types of resources. Apart from that, the state did not provide directives on how library work should be designed or the level of service. There were no requirements for follow-up, and the possibilities for sanctions against municipalities not meeting the law's requirements were virtually nonexistent.

In 2009, the government decided to evaluate the Library Act with the aim of strengthening and ensuring the role of libraries in future society. The evaluation emphasized the need for a new Library Act, primarily referring to the impact of digitization on library work, significant changes in the outside world, and an increased need for coordination and follow-up of library operations. Simultaneously, it was decided that the Royal Library would henceforth have the national responsibility for all library issues, including public libraries (Proposition 2012/13:147 2012). According to Frenander (2012) this was one of the most important reforms of the Swedish library system since the beginning of the twentieth century. The purpose was to gain a better overview of collaboration opportunities within the entire library sector and, in consultation with regional libraries, continuously monitor the work of local libraries, to drive the development efforts (Hylland, Kann-Rasmussen, and Vårheim 2022).

The new Library Act came into force in 2014 and is the Act that applies today (Bibliotekslagen 2013:801 2013). It remains a framework law for the entire library sector. The most significant difference is the purpose clause of the new act (§ 2), which states that it is the task of all publicly funded libraries to contribute to the development of a democratic society by promoting knowledge dissemination and free opinion formation. This includes libraries promoting the position of literature and the interest in popular education, enlightenment, education, research, and cultural activities in general. It is also states that library services should be available to everyone and adapted to users' needs. The wording "all citizens" from the first Act has disappeared because it excludes all people who are not formally Swedish citizens. Libraries are for everyone (Proposition 2012/13:147 2012).

The significance of libraries for upholding a democratic society has thus been emphasized and specifically highlighted in the new act, which is a significant difference from before. There are also some stricter formulations. Cooperation within the library sector is strongly emphasized, viewing all types of publicly funded libraries as a common, national resource. Furthermore, it is emphasized in the government bill that the user perspective should be guiding and that it is important for public libraries to collect and consider the wishes and opinions of library users on the library services (Proposition 2012/13:147 2012). Both users and non-users should be involved in the design of the services.

The prioritized groups mentioned in the new Library Act are individuals with disabilities, speakers of any of the five minority languages, other foreign languages, or those in need of easy-to-read Swedish. For public libraries, it is stipulated that reading and access to literature should be especially promoted, paying special attention to children and young people to foster their language development and reading interest. Furthermore, it is emphasized that public libraries should work to raise awareness about how to use modern information and communication technologies (Bibliotekslagen 2013:801 2013). Thus, it is no longer sufficient to provide and mediate database information; public libraries must also organize educational activities to enhance the general information literacy in society.

In summary, there is now a Library Act that emphasizes the role of public libraries in a democratic society, highlighting the importance of participation and collaboration to achieve a library service accessible and adapted to everyone, with activities and resources that meet the needs of different user groups. These are values consistently associated with community librarianship. The question is how the state ensures that municipalities comply with the requirements of this framework law.

Library Plans

In 2004, an amendment was added to the first Library Act, stating that there must be development plans for all publicly funded libraries operating in municipalities and regions (Bibliotekslagen 1996:1596 1996). Later, in the Government Bill for the new Library Act, it was noted that the level of library service was uneven, and a more even level across the country should be pursued, built on collaboration in the library sector. The role of local and regional library plans in this process was emphasized, but it was also observed that many municipalities still had no plan (Proposition 2012/13:147 2012). Therefore, the new Library Act stipulated that the library plans must be actively followed up—both locally, regionally, and nationally (Bibliotekslagen 2013:801 2013).

In Sweden, the entire public administration transitioned from rule-based management to goal and performance management during the 1990s. This change was associated with ideas from New Public Management, a management model borrowed from the private sector aiming at increased efficiency in public services, where various types of plans play a crucial role. By formulating goals for an operation, developing strategies for achieving these goals, and later evaluating the outcomes, it ensures that the operation functions and evolves as intended. The function of library plans is to describe how municipalities or regions intend to implement the purpose of the Library Act in their work. However, the plans also provide the state with the opportunity to follow up on how library issues are prioritized locally and regionally throughout the country (Kungliga biblioteket 2013), thus constituting a new tool in the governance and control of public libraries.

According to the Royal Library only 35 percent of municipalities had a current library plan when the new Library Act came into effect in 2014. By the end of 2022, the figure was 98 percent. (Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksplaner, n.d.) A potent means of pressure is the current requirement that applications for funds from initiatives funded by the state, such as Strengthened Libraries, are only approved for municipalities with current library plans (Förordning 2018:66 om statsbidrag till folkbibliotek, 2018). If there is no plan, the municipality cannot apply for state grants.

The Royal Library has also developed instructions on how library plans should be formulated and what they should contain (Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksplaner, n.d.; Kungliga biblioteket 2017). The plan should be based on an environmental analysis focusing on various factors in the local community affecting library work, and it should be a politically anchored document (Kungliga biblioteket 2017). At the same time, participation is a keyword. To create legitimacy for the plan it is required, among other things, to actively involve residents in the process of developing it. Various groups in the local community should be represented, including both library users and non-users, children, and adults. The plan should also clearly describe how residents can have impact on the library services (Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksplaner, n.d.; Kungliga biblioteket 2017).

The Royal Library is also responsible for monitoring the library plans and has conducted two national reviews of library plans so far. The latest report came in 2021 and was based on an analysis of local plans from 2020 in 78 municipalities. It was noted, among other things, that much of what libraries describe in their plans can be defined as work for social sustainability in various forms. The Royal Library observes that it poses a significant future challenge for public libraries to both broaden their activities and simultaneously reach out to new user groups, which they intend to particularly monitor in upcoming library plans (Kungliga biblioteket 2021).

The National Library Strategy

In the beginning of 2022, the government for the first time decided on a national library strategy, which in its current version covers the period 2022–2025 (Kulturdepartementet 2022). The decision marked the end of a process that began back in 2015 when the Royal Library was tasked by the government to draft a proposal for a national library strategy. As part of this work, numerous seminars and discussions were held with stakeholders in the library sector and other sectors. Several reports were also published by experts and researchers, including the aforementioned research anthology on education (Hansson 2019). Other reports addressed topics such as the library's role for democracy, school libraries, and the library's role in the multilingual society. The work resulted in a proposal, published (also in English), under the title The Treasure Trove of Democracy (Fichtelius, Persson, and Enarson 2019), featuring a range of concrete development measures. However, it was not until 2022 that the government presented its final strategy document. Although there is likely agreement with the proposal in many respects, many of the specific measures have disappeared, probably due in part to cost considerations.

The national library strategy describes the current challenges and development needs in the library sector, highlighting three overarching areas as particularly crucial. The publicly funded libraries should be accessible and relevant to everyone, contribute to and follow societal development, and be based on a well-functioning national infrastructure. The strategy emphasizes that access to the library resources and services must improve and be equal geographically and socially, requiring strengthened collaboration between different levels and stakeholders throughout the library sector to achieve this.

According to the strategy, one reason for the unequal library service is the closure of many library branches in recent years due to budget constraints. Since the turn of the millennium, the number of physical libraries in Sweden has decreased by 25 percent. The number of visits and loans at public libraries has also declined in recent years, and the availability of library resources varies. Unequal access to literature for children with a mother tongue other than Swedish is specifically noted. Another highlighted problem is the digital media supply of libraries. At the same time, the strategy emphasizes that public libraries have a broad democratic mission aligned with social sustainability, as described in the international action plan Agenda 2030 (United Nations 2015) and the UN's global goals for sustainable development, which Sweden has endorsed. The strategy especially emphasizes the role of public libraries in combating segregation.

The vital role of libraries as places for culture and meetings is also emphasized. Often, public libraries today represent the largest expenditure for culture in the municipal budget, together with the activities of study associations, forming a central precondition for local cultural life, particularly in smaller municipalities in rural areas. However, this is a vulnerable structure, as reductions in the municipal budget can quickly have negative consequences for local cultural life. The strategy also highlights the significance of libraries in times of crisis and war, emphasizing the importance of access to evidence-based information, and the need for individuals to seek, evaluate, and use information. Here, libraries play a crucial role in enhancing public competence.

To conclude, the answer to RQ1 is that Sweden's Library Act since 2014 and the new national library strategy reflect a perspective on the roles of libraries that is clearly connecting to community librarianship. Notably, the importance of libraries for a democratic society and the emphasis on collaboration with both users and non-users are highlighted. At the same time, it must be pointed out that collaboration has become a buzzword in the wake of Agenda 2030, and also in the more general discussion about the relationship between public actors and different community groups. Citizen dialogues are integrated in many municipalities and regions as part of governance and operational development, aiming to create a sustainable society (Sveriges kommuner och landsting 2019). The collaborative efforts of libraries are part of this.

It is also clear that the state over time has taken an increasingly active stance toward municipalities regarding public libraries. State governance and control have gradually increased since Sweden introduced goal and performance management in the 1990s, where evaluation, documentation, and measurement of performance and efficiency have become central elements in the public sector in general. Therefore, the Library Acts, local and regional library plans, and most recently, the national library strategy, should also be considered from this perspective, and the national library statistics must also be mentioned here. Previously, they only covered public libraries and were quite rudimentary. Since 2014, all publicly funded libraries with at least two full-time employees are required to submit data every year (Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksstatistik, n.d.). The amount of data to be reported has also gradually increased, meaning that the statistics provide more comprehensive information today than they did in the past.

At the same time, it can be noted that the state's governance and control of public libraries have changed character over time, from a focus in the earliest years on the professionalization of library work and purchase of the "right" books to every local library, to accessibility and development issues from a much broader perspective today.

In this context, it may finally be interesting to consider for a moment the users' perceptions of the library's changing roles and expanded activities. Audunson et al.'s (2019) conclusion from the survey conducted in six European countries was that users still have a fairly traditional motivation for the value of public libraries, focusing on their roles as cultural heritage institutions, as equal mediators of knowledge and literature, and as arenas for learning. However, the library's role as a meeting place and arena for public debate was not considered particularly important, even though many respondents often came to the library and participated in activities organized there. There is a need for more studies focusing on users' perceptions of the library's roles.

Strengthened Libraries

What is the state doing to support and strengthen public libraries in their efforts to implement what the strategy calls for? Over the past decade, several initiatives for development measures have been implemented by the government, with the most extensive one, Strengthened Libraries, particularly highlighted in the library strategy. Strengthened Libraries was an initiative from the government 2018–2020 that provided funds for local library development work. It was later extended for an additional three years, covering 2021–2023. For the first three years, SEK 220 million (€19.5 million) was allocated annually, to the municipalities through an application process. In 2021 and 2022, the budget was SEK 150 million (€13.3 million), and in the final year 2023, SEK 75 million (€6.6 million). The initiative also included certain resources for the development work of regional libraries (Kulturdepartementet 2022).

According to the government's directive, the development projects of the municipalities had to be in line with the Library Act and contribute to increasing the supply and accessibility of library services throughout the country (Kulturdepartementet 2022). This was a very broad definition, inviting projects of many different kinds. The interest from libraries was significant, and after the first three years, all 290 municipalities in the country had been granted funds for one or more projects, despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting public libraries hard during this time and complicating their work (Statens kulturråd 2021).

In the follow-up reports, especially from the first three years, it is noted that municipalities often sought funds to develop the library as a place through various investments in infrastructure and equipment. Furthermore, many projects focused on various types of events and activities taking place in or around the library as a place. This could involve many things, ranging from promoting reading and language development, to various digital initiatives, aimed at increasing user engagement and library accessibility. A third area of development that often reoccurred was initiatives focusing on existing and potential users (Nowé Hedvall, Pilerot, and Ögland 2021).

Furthermore, it is noted that public libraries in sparsely populated areas generally struggle to fulfill the intentions of library legislation due to strained economic resources, lack of infrastructure, and difficulty in acquiring staff with the necessary competence to engage with diverse user groups. Funding from initiatives like Strengthened Libraries is therefore a prerequisite for operational and competence development in these areas (Hansson 2019). In other words, the varying conditions of municipalities make it impossible to achieve equal public library service across the entire country without support from the state.

Strengthened Libraries and Local Collaboration with Study Associations

The conclusions from Strengthened Libraries collectively indicate that the development of different kinds of events and activities in the library room is something libraries are dedicating significant developmental efforts to today, aiming to reach more and new users—a development that is aligned with community librarianship. This is also very clearly reflected in Swedish library statistics. Data on events in the library began to be collected only in

2007, which indicates that this was now considered an important activity, needing better mapping. The figures (table 1) show that the number of events per year in Swedish public libraries increased by a staggering 143 percent between 2007 and 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume halved, but is now rapidly increasing again (Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksstatistik, n.d.).

The libraries' websites illustrate the diversity of their events and activities. As an example, the municipality of Uppsala, with slightly less than 250,000 inhabitants, can be used. The website of Uppsala public library has a long list of events, often recurring and targeting various groups (Uppsala Public Library, n.d.). Based on collection of information from the website during 2023, events that do not directly relate to the library's reading promotion and information literacy work include the following:

* Legal advice for asylum seekers and the homeless

* School homework help, for adults and teenagers

* Language training and language cafés

* Computer programming courses

* Food waste market, where those in need get free or cheap leftover food from local supermarkets and restaurants

* Clothing exchange day, where users bring their old clothes

* Exhibitions, e.g., on disability rights, the history of national minorities, Uppsala's past

* Lectures and debates on the climate crisis and other topics, e.g., active parenthood, consumer knowledge, open science, living with chronic pain, supporting suicidal people, LGBTQ-issues

* Science café, with coffee and short scientific lectures on various subjects

* Writing courses with lectures by known authors, both in Swedish and English, and poetry workshops

* Textile studio where users can repair their clothes, including knitting, weaving, wool felting

* Manga club, including a course on how to draw manga

* Role-playing club

* Chess for beginners and experienced players and chess tournaments

* Film screenings with various themes, e.g., queer cinema, and film screenings for small children

* Sing-along sessions for parents and infants and baby rhythmic activities

* Playing with Lego (for all ages, including adults)

Uppsala's events are, like in most libraries, often carried out in collaboration with external actors such as local NGOs, local businesses, and other municipal institutions. As mentioned, there is an infrastructure for local educational and cultural activities through study associations, and they are also, sometimes, represented as collaboration partners in Uppsala. Generally speaking, it is easy to see the similarities between today's library events and activities offered by study associations. Often, they involve lectures, workshops, or various types of circles, "clubs," and "cafés," where the social dimension is important. This also applies to literary activities and it can be noted that in 2011, study associations still conducted six times as many book club activities per year as public libraries (Rydbeck 2016).

Today, there are nine study associations, all of which have a national coverage. Their activities are largely funded by government grants, and local NGOs can receive financial and administrative support from the study associations for their study circle work and cultural events, which has made study associations attractive partners. Many NGOs are members or have local cooperation agreements. The existing grant regulations also make it attractive for study associations to specifically attract participants with low educational backgrounds and with languages other than Swedish as their mother tongue, and they have at times received additional funds to organize Swedish language education for newly arrived refugees. Therefore, the question is whether—for the public libraries increasingly emphasizing the user perspective and working hard with community building and different kinds of events in the library—the study associations today are considered as attractive partners for the public libraries to reach new user groups? Do they want to increase this collaboration?

There is no current research or statistics on the collaboration between study associations and public libraries. Librarians Karin Löfdahl and Margareta Törngren (2007), with reference to Klasson (1997), state that the traditional librarian role means that the guardian model has dominated in public libraries, with a top-down perspective in relation to users, instead of a model built on dialogue and interaction. This has not been a good starting point for collaboration with study associations and is an explanation for why it has been difficult to establish, they argue. Two regional libraries conducted a joint project in 2008 with the aim of increasing local collaboration between public libraries and study associations, but the final report stated that libraries preferably collaborated with other libraries, while collaboration with study associations was low-priority. Reasons given included a lack of staff resources in libraries and a lack of ideas about new areas or forms of collaboration (Alsbjer 2010).

How the situation looks today, fifteen years later, is somewhat unclear. But librarians' traditional guardian role is likely not as strong now as before, and events and activities in collaboration with external actors have generally increased and are strongly emphasized from the state, which could mean that collaboration with study associations also increased. On the other hand, there has also been a strong call for increased collaboration within the library sector. One way to get a picture of the current situation is to study the local applications to Strengthened Libraries. Are there many development projects focusing on this matter?

However, a review of the total of 1,942 applications shows that very few, only 28 (1.5 percent), asked for funding in order to develop collaboration with study associations. Of those, 25 were approved. For example, in one municipality the library wanted to start community information services in several languages and digitize its language training activities, in collaboration with two different study associations. In another the library wanted to hire a project manager to work on relationship building, including with study associations. But study associations were sometimes mentioned as one of several external actors the libraries wanted to collaborate with, in order to broaden their activities and attract more users. It was mainly about creating meeting places or more activities for some of the prioritized groups in the Library Act, such as children and teenagers, immigrants, or people with cognitive impairments.

The conclusion from this analysis is that there are no clear signs of an increasing interest today, of collaboration with study associations. Perhaps this is somewhat surprising after all, considering that the perception of the roles of libraries have changed, and the library work is now very much influenced by community librarianship, while the activities of study associations traditionally focus heavily on community building from a user perspective. Moreover, the subsidy regulations for study associations have made it especially important for them in recent years to reach new, low-educated groups, immigrants, and newly arrived refugees. Therefore, collaboration with them should reasonably be of interest for the libraries.

To conclude, the answer of RQ2 is that "Strengthened Libraries" was an initiative from the government aimed at increasing the local public libraries' opportunities to develop their services in line with the requirements and intentions of the Library Act and the national library strategy. As previously outlined, these are closely tied to several fundamental ideas of community librarianship. Consequently, they are also reflected in the applications to Strengthened Libraries, where the majority of the development projects, in various ways, revolve around the library as a place, and where some of the work is about strengthening community building through collaboration with external groups and actors. However, the interest in collaborating particularly with study associations still seems to be generally weak, despite their important role in local cultural life, their close connections to many local NGOs and their shared historical roots with public libraries.

The reasons for this can only be speculated upon, but some possible explanations have been hinted at here. Different traditional attitudes toward the user/participant could still play a role today. The professionalization of public libraries early on created the traditional librarian role, referred to by Klasson (1997) as the "guardian model," which community librarianship, however, has tried to move away from. Study circle activities always sought to emphasize and start from the user's perspective. As a consequence of this, the concept of popular education has been defined in slightly different ways. Ignorance could be another possible explanation (Zetterlund 1997). As study associations and public libraries have drifted apart, there is nowadays relatively little knowledge about each other's activities, development goals, and common roots. A larger survey would be needed to get a complete picture of the current relationship between public libraries and study associations.

Community Librarianship and Further Education of Librarians

How library policy addressed the issue of librarians' competence, and what consequences the changed roles of libraries have had on the need for further education is an important issue. However, it should be noted that the government has avoided demands regarding staffing levels and competence requirements in the Library Acts.

The issue is actively pursued by the Swedish Library Association and also by the labor union for librarians, DIK. It was addressed in the Royal Library's draft library strategy. The need for further education is discussed in its research anthology on education, where it is emphasized that the scope of library activities has expanded, imposing new requirements on librarians' skills and redefining the librarian profession (Hansson et al. 2018). The draft strategy suggested the establishment of an independent national institute for continuing education, with the task of systematically providing further education to library and information scientists across all sectors and types of libraries (Fichtelius, Persson, and Enarson 2019). The suggestion was, however, rejected by the government.

As already mentioned, there have been extensive discussions about the declining reading among Swedish children and teenagers in recent years, which is considered a significant cause of Sweden's poor results in international PISA and PIRLS assessments measuring school children's reading skills and comprehension. School libraries and reading promotion in public libraries for children and teenagers have, therefore, become high on the agenda. The government has allocated special funds for competence development in literature mediation and reading promotion, with a specific focus on children and teenagers (Hedemark 2020). The government has also provided funding to strengthen the digital competence among library staff through courses linked to a national platform for digital learning (Kulturdepartementet 2022).

In 2021, a government inquiry on school libraries was presented, emphasizing the need for improved school library services—especially in private schools, where they were often poor—and highlighting the importance of qualified school librarians. The minister for education declared in the fall of 2023 that the government intends to legally require staffed school libraries with trained librarians in all schools by 2025, but no decisions have been made yet. According to reports, 1,300 new school librarians will be needed by 2025 if the government's ambition becomes a reality (Gordan 2023). Consequently, the question of education and competence development in the library field now almost exclusively revolves around school librarians.

Community Librarianship and the Near Future—Final Discussion

This brings us to the last question: which direction will library policy take in the near future, and what role will community librarianship play then? Black and Muddiman (1997) note that the political climate during the 1980s and 1990s and economic cutbacks in welfare systems led to the dismantling of many activities associated with community librarianship, returning to a more traditional library approach. Much of the neoliberal market-oriented thinking that gained traction in politics during that time still influences the public sector in Sweden. However, the new Library Act's purpose clause about libraries' role in contributing to the development of a democratic society, Agenda 2030, and discussions about the role of libraries in social sustainability have contributed to a somewhat different situation today. Moreover, the public economy has been strong over the past decade, likely influencing the development of community librarianship in a positive way. Community librarianship plays an important role in Swedish libraries today.

The question, however, is whether we are now facing a new period of challenges for community librarianship. In the fall of 2022, Sweden got a new right-led government. It is a minority government governing with the support of the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigrant right-populist party that has grown significantly over the past decade. The new government has declared its intention to implement what it calls "a political paradigm shift." Additionally, the country's economic situation has worsened. The implications for cultural policy are still not entirely clear, but decisions were made at the end of 2023 to establish a Swedish cultural canon, specifying various Swedish works (books, artworks, songs, etc.) of particular national value to serve as "a living and useful tool for popular education, community, and inclusion" (Kulturdepartementet 2023). Economic constraints are also evident, as funding for Strengthened Libraries was halved for the initiative's final year, and the new government clarified that there would be no more extension. Instead, the library policy will be evaluated. The only new initiative from the government is a promise of a legal requirement for trained school librarians—where the local schools will bear the costs. However, the municipalities have already begun to feel the tougher times and the government's economic constraints, leading to new closures of library branches, for example in Uppsala (Sterner 2023).

Furthermore, the new government has reduced grants to study associations by a third from 2024—a cut of a magnitude unprecedented in the history of study associations since the 1930s depression. This has already resulted in the closure of one study association. The national library strategy emphasizes that economic constraints for public libraries and study associations can threaten local cultural life, especially in small, sparsely populated rural municipalities. A government inquiry about the future of study associations is currently underway, and whether increased collaboration with public libraries will be a subject of discussion there is still an open question.

The new government has also announced that a requirement will be introduced for public employees to report to the authorities, all individuals without a residence permit whom they encounter in their work. This has caused significant upset within many professions, including librarians, who have pointed out the importance of libraries for newly arrived refugees and argued that the government's requirement contradicts the statement in the Library Act that libraries are for everyone (DIK 2023).

Finally, influential local politicians from the Sweden Democrats have questioned the arm's length principle in several municipalities, for example by trying to reduce purchases of children's books in foreign languages and not allowing children's theater in Arabic or story hours with drag queens at the library (Rydbeck 2022; Rådegård 2023). The party has also declared that it wants to see a change in the Library Act, excluding people with languages other than Swedish (except the national minority languages) as a prioritized group (Sveriges riksdag 2022/23:971 2022).

All in all, there is reason to believe that today's political climate will bring about certain changes in the public library sector. To what extent this will affect community librarianship remains to be seen.

References

Alsbjer, Peter. 2010. "Folkbildning och folkbibliotek till ömsesidig nytta." In Mötesplats inför framtiden: arbetsliv, utbildning, forskning, Borås, Oktober 13–14, 2010. Örebro: Länsbiblioteket i Örebro län. http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:909891/FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Audunson, Ragnar, Svanhild Aabø, Roger Blomgren, Hans-Christoph Hobohm, Henrik Jochumsen, Mahmood Khosrowjerdi, Rudolf Mumenthaler, et al. 2019. "Public Libraries as Public Sphere Institutions: A Comparative Study of Perceptions of the Public Library's Role in Six European Countries." Journal of Documentation 75 (6): 1396–1415. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2019-0015.

Berg, Anne, and Samuel Edquist. 2017. The Capitalist State and the Construction of Civil Society: Public Funding and the Regulations of Popular Education in Sweden, 1870–1991. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52455-9.

Bibliotekslagen (1996:1596). 1996. Ministry of Culture. https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/bibliotekslag-19961596_sfs-1996-1596/.

Bibliotekslagen (2013:801). 2013. Ministry of Culture. https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/bibliotekslag-2013801_sfs-2013-801/.

Black, Alistair, and Dave Muddiman. 1997. Understanding Community Librarianship: The Public Library in Post-Modern Britain. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

DIK. 2023. "Sveriges bibliotekarier tänker inte ange papperslösa." Last modified May 23, 2023. https://dik.se/om-oss/nyheter/sveriges-bibliotekarier-tanker-inte-ange-papperslosa.

Duelund, Peter. 2003. "The Nordic Cultural Model: Summary." In The Nordic Cultural Model, edited by Peter Duelund, 479–581. Copenhagen: Nordic Cultural Institute.

Fichtelius, Erik, Christina Persson, and Eva Enarson. 2019. The Treasure Trove of Democracy: Proposal for a National Strategy for Libraries. Stockholm: The National Library of Sweden.

Folkbibliotek och folkbildning i samverkan: rapport från en arbetsgrupp inom folkbiblioteksutredningen. 1982. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.

Frenander, Anders. 2012. "A Hundred Years of Swedish Library Policy." https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:887588/FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Förordning 2018:66 om statsbidrag till folkbibliotek. 2018. Ministry of Culture. http://rkrattsbaser.gov.se/sfst?bet=2018:66.

Gordan, Rebecka. 2023. "Så många fler skolbibliotekarier behövs." magasin K, September 15, 2023. https://magasink.se/2023/09/sa-manga-fler-skolbibliotekarier-behovs/.

Gustavssone, Bernt. 2013. "The Idea of Democratic Bildung: Its Transformation in Space and Time." In Popular Education, Power and Democracy: Swedish Experiences and Contributions, edited by Ann-Marie Laginder and Jim Crowder, 35–49. Leicester, UK: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.

Hansson, Joacim. 2005. Det lokala folkbiblioteket: förändringar över hundra år. Linköping: Mimer.

———. 2019. Folkbibliotek i Glesbygd. Stockholm: Statens kulturråd.

Hansson, Joacim, Åse Hedemark, Ulrika Kjellman, Jenny Lindberg, Olof Sundin, and Per Wisselgren. 2018. Profession, utbildning, forskning: biblioteksoch informationsvetenskap för en stärkt bibliotekarieprofession. Stockholm: Kungliga biblioteket.

Hedemark, Åse. 2009. Det föreställda folkbiblioteket: en diskursanalytisk studie av biblioteksdebatter i svenska medier 1970–2006. Uppsala: Uppsala University.

———. 2017. "Sagostunders samtal: om läspraktiker och barnsyn i folkbibliotekets sagostund." In Unga läser: läsning, normer och demokrati, edited by Åse Hedemark and Maria Karlsson, 233–48. Möklinta: Gidlunds förlag.

———. 2020. "Constructing the Literate Child: An Analysis of Swedish Literature Policy." Library and Information History 36 (2): 73–88.

Herder, Mats. 1986. Arbetsplatsbibliotek i Sverige: studier av en uppsökande folkbiblioteksverksamhet och dess framväxt. Uppsala: Uppsala University.

Hylland, Ole Marius, Nanna Kann-Rasmussen, and Andreas Vårheim. 2022. "LAMs as Objects of Knowledge and Cultural Policy." In Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Transition: Changes, Challenges, and Convergence in a Scandinavian Perspective, edited by Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Kerstin Rydbeck, and Håkon Larsen, 57–70. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003188834-6.

Jochumsen, Henrik, Jamie Johnston, and Andreas Vårheim. 2022. "Pursuing Sustainable Futures through LAMs." In Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Transition: Changes, Challenges, and Convergence in a Scandinavian Perspective, edited by Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Kerstin Rydbeck, and Håkon Larsen, 215–28. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003188834-19.

Johnston, Jamie, Henrik Jochumsen, and Samuel Edquist. 2022. "LAMs and Community: Deepening Connections." In Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Transition: Changes, Challenges, and Convergence in a Scandinavian Perspective, edited by Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Kerstin Rydbeck, and Håkon Larsen, 187–200. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003188834-17.

Klasson, Maj. 1997. "Temat folkbibliotek, folkbildning och livslångt lärande." In Folkbildning och bibliotek? På spaning efter spår av folkbildning och livslångt lärande i biblioteksvärlden, edited by Maj Klasson, 9–21. Borås: University College of Borås.

Kulturdepartementet. 2022. Strategi för ett starkt biblioteksväsende 2022–2025. Stockholm: Kulturdepartementet.

———. 2023. En svensk kulturkanon. Dir 2023:180. https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/4fa680009286471a99c39d329705a4d5/tillg.-anp.-kommittedirektiv-en-svensk-kulturkanon-delning.pdf

Kungliga biblioteket. 2013. Biblioteksplan 2.0: Folkbibliotek, Skolbibliotek, Regional Biblioteksverksamhet, Sjukhusbibliotek. Stockholm: Kungliga biblioteket.

———. 2017. Biblioteksplan 2.1: Kommunala Bibliotek, Regional Biblioteksverksamhet. Stockholm: Kungliga biblioteket.

———. 2021. Trender i planerna: kommunala biblioteksplaner antagna 2020. Stockholm: Kungliga biblioteket.

Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksplaner. n.d. National Library of Sweden. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.kb.se/samverkan-och-utveckling/biblioteksutveckling/biblioteksplaner.html

Kungliga biblioteket, Biblioteksstatistik. n.d. National Library of Sweden, Library statistics. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.kb.se/samverkan-och-utveckling/biblioteksstatistik.html.

Larsen, Håkon, Nanna Kann-Rasmussen, and Johanna Rivano Eckerdal. 2022 "Contemporary Scandinavian LAMs and Legitimacy." In Libraries, Archives and Museums in Transition: Changes, Challenges and Convergence in a Scandinavian Perspective, edited by Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Kerstin Rydbeck, and Håkon Larsen, 173–86. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003188834-16.

Ljunggren, Lars. 1983. Boken åter i centrum: samverkan mellan folkbildning och folkbibliotek—igår, idag och imorgon: en antologi. Stockholm: Bibliotek i samhälle och Förlaget Barrikaden.

Löfdahl, Karin, and Margareta Törngren. 2007. "Varför gick det inte att samarbeta? Folkbibliotek-folkbildning, en komplicerad historia." Ikoner 5: 24–29.

Nowé Hedvall, Karen, Ola Pilerot, and Malin Ögland. 2021. Stärkta bibliotek: uppföljning av satsningen Stärkta bibliotek 2018–2020. Stockholm: Statens kulturråd.

Proposition 2012/13:147. 2012. https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/proposition/ny-bibliotekslag_h003147/html/.

Rådegård, Isabella. 2023. "Efter debatten: stort publiktryck på Drag Story Hour." Sveriges Television. Last modified January 17, 2023. https://www.svt.se/kultur/efter-debatten-stort-publiktryck-for-drag-story-hour-pa-biblioteken.

Rydbeck, Kerstin. 2016. "Reading Groups in Swedish Public Libraries." In Plotting the Reading Experience: Theory, Practice, Politics, edited by Paulette M. Rothbauer, Kjell Ivar Skjerdingstad, Lynne McKechnie, and Knut Oterholm, 233–45. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

———. 2022. "Lagstiftning och styrdokument för de offentliga biblioteken." In Biblioteksgeografin: en antologi om biblioteksväsende och biblioteksforskning, edited by Roger Blomgren, Katarina Michnik, and Johan Sundeen, 49–83. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Rydbeck, Kerstin, and Jamie Johnston. 2020. "LAM Institutions: A Cross-Country Comparison of Legislation and Statistics on Services and Use." In Libraries, Archives and Museums as Democratic Spaces in a Digital Age, edited by Ragnar Audunson, Herbjörn Andresen, Cicilie Fagerlid, Erik Henningsen, Hans-Christoph Hobohm, Henrik Jochumsen, Håkon Larsen, and Tonje Vold, 25–52. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110636628.

Söderholm, Jonas, and Jan Nolin. 2015. "Collections Redux: The Public Library as a Place of Community Borrowing." The Library Quarterly 85, no. 3 (July): 244–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/681608.

Statens kulturråd. 2021. Stärkta Bibliotek: Redovisning Av Satsningen Stärkta Bibliotek 2018–2020. Stockholm: Statens kulturråd.

Sterner, Goran. 2023. "Vänge blir utan bibliotek vid årsskiftet." 2023. Upsala Nya Tidning, Last modified April 27, 2023. https://unt.se/kultur/bibliotek/artikel/klart-ett-av-uppsalas-bibliotek-laggs-ner-vid-arsskiftet/r565p3gl.

Sveriges kommuner och landsting. 2019. Medborgardialog i styrning: för ett stärkt demokratiskt samhälle. Stockholm: Sveriges kommuner och landsting.

Sveriges riksdag. 2022. Motion till riksdagen nr 2022/23:971. https://data.riksdagen.se/fil/EC14DEB7-4CBF-401F-926E-0F2D630B991C.

United Nations. 2015. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/publications/transforming-our-world-2030-agenda-sustainable-development-17981.

Uppsala Public Library. n.d. "Events." Information accessed March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31, 2023. https://bibliotekuppsala.se/evenemang#/.

Zetterlund, Angela. 1997. "Om folkbildningens roll i biblioteksvärlden." In Folkbildning och bibliotek? På spaning efter spår av folkbildning och livslångt lärande i biblioteksvärlden, edited by Maj Klasson, 26–47. Borås: University College of Borås.