“Vi måste berätta en ny historia om biblioteket” : Folkbibliotekschefer om det digitala utanförskapet

Sammanfattning: In the wake of the increased digitalisation of the Swedish society, people who experience difficulties to utilise digital services turn to the public library for assistance. As a result, questions concerning how and to what extent the public library is supposed to support people in need of digital services is raised amongst the public library staff. The purpose of this thesis is thus to examine public library managers understanding of what role the institution should uphold in the midst of the depicted development, and how they enact in order to implement the defined role within the organisations they manage. The findings are based on qualitative interviews with seven public library managers from different municipalities i Västra Götalandsregionen. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis methodology, and the results were interpreted by means of Shaffer’s (2018) criterias for social sustainability within public library organisations. The findings display that the public library managers perceive a direct link between the Swedish library act and the role as information supplier and tutor of people in need of digital support. In order to utilise this understanding, the public library managers undertake various actions including securing good communications with staff, users and local politicians, facilitation of adequate training for staff members etc. while trying to establish above­named role, chiefly amongst the employees. Measured against Shaffer’s criterias and against literature on the viewpoints of librarians, users and politicians, these actions may have positive as well as negative effect on the public library’s social sustainability.