DEN OSYNLIGA PROFESSIONEN. En studie över fackföreningen DIK:s förändringsarbete med bibliotekarieyrkets status

Sammanfattning: The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how DIK (Documentation, Information and Culture), the major trade union for Swedish librarians, work with the status and professionalization of the occupation. The status is, as we see it, low and depending on several factors. They are among others: the knowledge base, how extended the research base is and the domination of women within the profession. These factors all work together to maintain the status and the prestige of the occupation at a low level. With the help and work of the trade union DIK the status can improve if the focus is right. The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine the strategies of the union DIK and see if their work has had any effects on the librarian's status. We base our study on theories about professions, prestige, power and gender studies. These theories have served as an instrument to examine our material. This focus helps us to understand how status is determined and to further see how it can be changed. We examine DIK´s published brochures, their internal records, and the website. As a complement we also did interviews with two representatives of DIK. We have analysed and discussed the material by applying the theories to answer our questions in the purpose of this study. The main findings of our study are that DIK has successfully worked towards a professionalization of the occupation, but that the organisation doesn?t do it in a strategic way which doesn?t make it as effective as it could be. We have also found that DIK are aware of the gender aspects of the problem, but we haven?t found any visible signs of how they work from gender aspects to change the librarian's status.