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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of national libraries in developing national open access infrastructure and policy on the basis of the experiences of the National Library (NL) of Sweden.

The paper is descriptive based on the knowledge of a key player in the development of open access in Sweden. The priorities and outcome of the programme are described.

The paper reveals that the NL Sweden since around 1990 has combined the mission of a “traditional” national library with that of a national, research library authority. It has coordinated its support for development of repositories and open access in the OpenAccess.se programme that ran from 2006 to 2009. The conclusion is that a national library can successfully act as a catalyst for closer cooperation between the main bodies of research and research libraries in advancing an Open Access agenda and developing a digital research information infrastructure. This is because it is usually placed directly under the government and thus closer to national policy making. It is often perceived as unbiased in relation to the different interests of the various parties involved. It is also able to advance development projects into sustainable services.

The role of national libraries in relation to open access has not been discussed widely. The experience of the NL Sweden in this respect has a general interest.

Surveys the history of the major libraries of Sweden. The Royal Library in Stockholm, Uppsala and Lund University Libraries and the City and University Libraries of Gothenburg are featured. The development of public libraries in Sweden is also considered.

While universities are using more digital tools such as learning management systems (canvas, blackboard, etc). or massive open online courses (MOOCS) such as MIT, OpenCourseWare, edX, Coursera, digitalization has also influenced university libraries. Digital services of academic libraries need exploration on how they provide digital services and how they respond to COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore and map digital services of academic libraries and their response to COVID-19 in Sweden.

Qualitative research approach is used in this study. Through a Web search, data was gathered from all 39 universities in Sweden through two means: visiting university and their respective library websites; examination of other documents provided by the university such as press releases, announcements. Evaluation of the content and digital services and libraries response to COVID-19 is conducted by thematic coding.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 spread, a general trend seen among all is limited working hours, shutting down physical libraries for general public, unmanning operations. All 39 number of universities in Sweden have moved their offerings toward using online tools. The main themes that have been identified from our study are as follows: Availability of Information, Accessibility of resources, Collaboration with other actors, Increased use of existing services, motivation and support to practice social distancing.

Owing to the limitations of COVID-19 conditions, time and other aspects, there was not any opportunity to visit the university libraries or book time to interview librarians or students, which led to limited level and imperfect research. There are many other activities that university libraries are offering to their employees and using their internal newsletters and email groups to reach their audience; as a result, some of digital services that are offered during COVID-19 might have not been noticed.

These findings can provide base to other universities on how to react to COVID-19 and bring more discussion.

COVID-19 has big social impact on people. The findings present that libraries can go beyond their responsibilities and provide emotional and psychological support the community towards social distancing such as videos, social online meetings, live video workshops.

The findings from this study call for a review digital services of academic libraries and their response to COVID-19 in Sweden, so that best reactions and services could be understood.

The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a Swedish national survey study finalised in late 2010. The purpose of the project was to create a picture of Swedish library services directed to the five minority groups defined as “national minorities” in the country: Romani, Sámi, Jews, Tornedalians and Swedish Finns. The study focuses on media, cultural activities, and co‐operation.

In the study, a survey questionnaire was used as the primary method. The questionnaire was sent to all 289 county libraries of Sweden. A total of 181 were returned and used in the study. The theoretical stance is emancipatory in that it takes the position that libraries may play a vital role not only for the social integration of the concerned minority groups, but also for spreading interest in, and understanding of, the unique identities of these groups in the majority society.

The findings of the study show that Swedish public libraries have very limited services towards the national minority groups in focus. In some cases, like service to the elderly and out‐reach activity, no activity whatsoever could be measured.

The research reported in the article is original in that it is the first time that the services to the national minority groups of Sweden are mapped and measured at a national level. The value of the result is high as it shows major weaknesses in library services and the study provides a good point of departure for developing minority services in Swedish libraries.

To examine how the library user emerges in the context of the LibQUAL+™ application in Sweden in 2004.

The paper examines the following aspects: how the information control dimension is depicted in the results of the Swedish participants; how the information control dimension compares between the Swedish implementation and other libraries; the ”new user” as he emerges from the comments that support the notion of the self‐sufficient, independent, and autonomous information seeker at Lund University; and the new users as reflected in the linguistic translation issues of the LibQUAL+™ survey instrument in Swedish.

Library users in Sweden have indicated that the information control dimension is an important one to them and this is the one dimension where libraries are not faring well. This finding is replicated in other non‐Swedish libraries. In terms of the comments provided, 372 LibQUAL+™ comments (most of them in Swedish) were analyzed and they all show the importance of self‐sufficiency. Last, the LibQUAL+™ translation in Swedish revealed that the “new” library user wants a library survey that articulates library issues in a more modern language and not the traditional and more conservative Swedish diction – in other words, the expectation for modernization is also reflected in the actual phrases used in the survey instrument.

Contributes to the field of in‐depth cultural studies and qualitative analysis in the different contexts where the “new library” users are encountered, to understand both the similarities of the “new” users across contexts and the unique aspects and circumstances they face in the context of their traditional encounters with the library.

The article investigates the institutional setup of e-lending in public libraries in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our point of departure is that e-lending has necessitated new library collaborations between local, regional and national levels, and therefore, institutional e-lending setups have emerged. The study seeks to provide better understanding of how the institutional setups are structured, how governance logics have shaped them and what tensions and dynamics become visible in the key actors’ problematisations of these setups.

The study is situated in the neo-institutional tradition and applies the institutional logics perspective. The research questions are answered by taking a qualitative approach, grounded in an extensive interview study with representatives of libraries, publishers and policy actors in three Scandinavian countries. To provide in-depth insight into e-lending setups, the scope of empirical material is then limited to accounts the central library and policy actors involved in establishing e-lending.

The analysis shows that the e-lending setups are both similar (especially when it comes to financing), and different across Scandinavia, especially when it comes to centralisation and involvement of librarians in this task. The differences are attributed to the influence of different governance logics (question of administrative autonomy, collaboration in the field and existing legal and political frames), and to what extent the digital and market logics are incorporated or rejected in the field.

The study provides new insights into the question of how Scandinavian public libraries face the consequences of the digitalisation of book distribution and consumption by investigating how they organise their e-lending services. This has not been explored before, notably in a comparative perspective.

This paper reports the development in Sweden during the last few years on shared print cooperation. In June 2022, 30 libraries signed a letter of intent on cooperation on preservation and withdrawal of print material. By taking joint responsibility for long-term preservation, libraries aim to secure access as well as diversity and breadth in the collections.

As a first practical step, the working group is conducting a national collection analysis using metadata in the national catalog LIBRIS.

The paper presents the preliminary results of the collection analysis and discusses the next steps for the collaboration. 

The Swedish collaboration is one of many European and international collaborations on print archiving, and as such being of interest to a global library field.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how SAGA, a system for managing the library operations associated with document supply, was successfully developed using a very informal project model.

The project model and system architecture are described.

Initially, SAGA was tailored for the needs of the medical library at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Subsequently, it has been implemented at other Swedish academic libraries. The system has features for automating the workflows associated with document supply for both loans and copies externally and internally. It integrates document requests from a diversity of ordering systems under a single interface. The methodology adopted when implementing the system suggests that an incremental approach sometimes has benefits over a more formal pre‐planned approach.

The project model described may be applied to development projects at other libraries. The system architecture may be applied to other systems for managing document supply.

The SAGA approach relies on managing requests placed in different systems via a single interface rather than trying to direct customers to a single ordering system.

A survey of developments in interlibrary co‐operation in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Various possibilities for closer co‐operation between countries or between libraries are discussed, as is the possibility of a Scandinavian international lending library or a Swedish national library. Mention is made of the Scandia‐plan and of LIBRIS

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of public libraries as institutions underpinning a democratic public sphere as reasons legitimizing libraries compared to reasons that are more traditional and the actual use of libraries as public sphere arenas.

A survey of representative samples of the adult population in six countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland – was undertaken.

Legitimations related to the libraries role as a meeting place and arena for public debate are ranked as the 3 least important out of 12 possible legitimations for upholding a public library service. Libraries are, however, used extensively by the users to access citizenship information and to participate in public sphere relevant meetings.

Few studies have empirically analyzed the role of libraries in upholding a democratic and sustainable public sphere. This study contributes in filling that gap.