Among books, dream libraries and association news : Library press content during five years

This master’s thesis explores what subjects occupy swedish library periodicals. The nature and extent of the subjects presented in the periodicals might hint what kinds of focuses are regarded as being of more (or less) significance for library activities. The themes of the individual articles, news items and advertisments of four printed periodicals spanning five years (2019–2023) were explored using content analysis. The results of this analysis were further interpreted taking departure in a discourse analysis framework developed by Hedemark and the four-space model by Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen och Skot-Hansen. The contents of the magazines were triangulated, which showed some differences and similarities regarding their respective focuses in terms of individual subjects and general orientations. The magazines convey a view of the public libraries that primarily revolves around learning and the promotion of reading. Libraries as a place for meetings, creativity or inspiration through different types of media are not present to the same extent in the material. However, a lot of the material touches on topics that cannot be linked to the actual activities of the libraries, but rather to the social context that affects them.