“Det är alltid så levande” : Bibliotekariers upplevelse av sin yrkesroll

Sammanfattning: This bachelor’s thesis investigates the experience of the professional role of five librarians based on semi-structured interviews with a qualitative approach. In the outcome, three main themes emerged; challenges, skills and changes. The challenges consisted partly of challenges linked to the work in the organization, partly of challenges in the leadership where participants felt that managers did not possess sufficient knowledge in the day-to-day work of the organization. In the theme of competence, it emerged that previous competence and experiences were felt to be important in shaping the individual librarianship. In contrast to this, there is also a perceived need for general competence among all librarians. In addition to this, participants felt there was a lack of pedagogical competence. Changes in the professional role consisted of project-based working methods becoming a larger part of the practical work. The role of libraries in society was another part of the perceived changes were political changes that participants feared would give less resources to libraries and provided a motivation to work more outreach. Regarding changes connected to the future, participants felt that the physical book would still be relevant. This thesis highlights that there is a perceived lack of competence taught during education for librarianship and that social competence is central to the profession of librarian. Furthermore, it emerged that the changes of recent decades have meant that the librarian's role has changed to a broader, more complex professional role, since the professional role is individually designed.