Opportunist, vandrare eller ta och dra? : En studie av browsingbeteenden på två folkbibliotek

Sammanfattning: This qualitative study examines the browsing behaviours of patrons at two Swedish public libraries. Our methods were semistructured observations and semistructured interviews. The purpose of this thesis is to generate knowledge on how browsing behaviours manifest in practice, especially in the lesser-studied public library context. The research questions were: 1. Which browsing types and browsing activities can be found in our data? 2. How do the patrons describe the changes in their browsing behaviour in relation to the specificity of their information need? 3. How do the patrons describe that their behaviours and choices are influenced by the libraries’ marketing of resources in the physical library room, for example book displays and themed shelves? The results were then analysed in relation to a typology of browsing behaviour proposed by McKay et al. (2019), and in relation to models of browsing behaviour created by Kwasnik (1992) and Bates (2007). The models by Kwasnik and Bates were found to be accurate and useful in describing the browsing behaviours of the patrons we observed. Our data supported some of the types presented by McKay et al.(2019), while other types have been slightly redefined to better reflect our data. The good enough type was proposed as an alternative to McKay et al.’s satisficing type. The patrons displayed different browsing behaviours corresponding to the specificity of their information needs. The patrons show different views towards the library displays. A few patrons looked at them very rarely, while most looked at them more often.