Bibliotek 2.0 = förändring? Diskurser om användare och deras interaktion med biblioteksverksamheter

Sammanfattning: This master’s thesis in Library and Information Science concerns the relationship between librarians and users, and focuses on how it is constructed in scholarly articles about Library 2.0. The study analyses 40 articles concerning Library 2.0 and the questions asked are: ”How is the relationship between librarians and users constructed?”; ”Which discourses can be identified in the articles and how do they relate to each other?”; ”How is the relation of power between librarians and users constructed in the discourses?” And finally ”How do the different discourses view Library 2.0 as a model for change?” The method used in the thesis is discourse analysis and more specifically Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory, combined with discussions regarding Michel Foucault's theories on discourse analysis. Discourses are seen as filters through which the world is seen and each discourse could have actual consequences on physical and digital libraries and their ways of interacting with their users. Three discourses are identified in the material: The Market Discourse, the Community Discourse and the Learning Discourse. Each of these discourses positions the users and librarians in different ways in order to suit their ways of seeing the library and society. The roles of the users are as customer in the Market Discourse, as co-creater in the Community Discourse and as a client looking for knowledge in the Learning Discourse. Moreover, the roles of the librarians are as non-experts in the Market and Community Discourses while librarians in the Learning Discourse are seen as professionals and experts. The study also finds that Library 2.0 is often seen as a reaction to the more important role that information plays in the society today, although there are different suggestions on how to react from the different discourses. The Market and Community Discourses suggest that libraries should be what the users want and need them to be, and according to the Market Discourse the libraries should also realise that they are in competition with commercial information systems and respond to the increasing demands of their customers. According to the more traditional view of the Learning Discourse, libraries may need to change but should maintain a quality control in regard to Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and the users' ability to create content.