Att ta plats och göra skillnad: skolbibliotekariepraktiker i framgångsrika verksamheter

Book review of Ulrika Centerwalls (2022) Att ta plats och göra skillnad: skolbibliotekariepraktiker i framgångsrika verksamheter, Högskolan i Borås, Borås

Documentary Practices of Hospital Librarians in Evidence-based Medicine: the Example of Health Technology Assessment in Swedish Healthcare

Today’s healthcare rely on a basis of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and in modern healthcare there are demands for rational decision-making about new methods, technology and treatments. HTA (Health Technology Assessment) supports decision-making in healthcare and in this study we turn to documentary practices of hospital librarians in HTA, as well as how documentary practices shape and are shaped by the work and roles of hospital librarians. Five central documentary practices were identified as initial searching, negotiating a search strategy, the main searching, making a selection, and documenting the search process. These practices construct the work and roles of hospital librarians through different documents, for example formal guidelines for systematic reviews and various tools used for searching, selecting and documenting the search process

”Det känns som att jag bara sitter och väntar på att det ska explodera” - politisk påverkan på de kommunala folkbibliotekens verksamhet i sex sydsvenska regioner.

Public libraries are one of several institutions that uphold Swedish democracy. The representative liberal democratic model, expressed in the Library Act, is increasingly being questioned and challenged. Political actors, mainly from the radical right, advocate a democracy focused on the will of the people at the expense of the rights of individuals. With the notion of plural agonistics, public libraries can be seen as important arenas for debates and meetings between people, offering ways to handle conflicts within democratic institutions. Methodologically, this study employs the perspective of institutional ethnography, and the aim of this paper is to develop knowledge about public libraries’ experiences of political pressure and how this is enacted in a time of political turbulence. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a survey study directed at public library managers in 77 municipalities from the six southernmost regions of Sweden. Based on replies in these surveys, interviews were conducted with seven of the participating library managers. Findings show that the interplay between libraries and the local political level, and between national and local political levels, generally functions without notable opposition. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is primarily triggered by issues connected to cultural diversity. Results further indicate that local public libraries tend to respond to illegitimate political pressure by development and use of professional policy documents, but also, in some cases, by avoiding certain activities

Diskurser i referenssamtalet: En diskurspsykologisk studie

This Master's thesis aims to investigate the reference interview using the discourse analytical method discourse psychology. The reference interview has been studied thoroughly, and its importance has been proven repeatedly within the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). However, it has never been studied from a discourse analytical point of view before. The material for our study was gathered at Malmö public library, and consists of 10 tape-recorded and then transcribed reference interviews. Our study shows that there are several discourses within the reference situation. The dominating discourse, the reference interview discourse, is found within all the reference interviews. Within this discourse three subordinate discourses co-exist: the institutional discourse, the process discourse and the pedagogical discourse. The reference interview discourse positions the librarian as the active agent and the user as the passive. Furthermore, the discourse encompasses a view where professionalism to a great extent dictates that the librarian be in control of the situation. In the institutional discourse the librarian takes on the role of a representative of the library as an institution. Questions concerning rules and routines are often discussed within this discourse. The authority of the librarian is strong and the user is seen as a passive client. The librarian has another kind of authority within the process discourse, and the user is given the opportunity to affect the reference interview, although not to fully control it. This discourse is mainly found during the information seeking process. In the pedagogical discourse the librarian takes on the role of the teacher, and therefore gains the authority provided by this position. This discourse is often found merged with the process discourse when the librarian pauses the information seeking process in order to explain why the process is sensible. We suggest that these underlying discourses are tools used, within different contexts, to maintain the position of the librarian and the user within the reference interview discourse

Lärarstudenters digitala studievardag : Informationslitteracitet vid en förskollärarutbildning

This dissertation reports on an investigation into how digital tools are used, negotiated and given meaning in Swedish pre-school teacher education. The overall aim has been to create a deeper understanding of how students’ information literacies are enacted when digital tools are used and appropriated in the daily life at a pre-school teacher education, in relation to conceptions of the digitalisation of teacher education in national policy. A netnographical study at a pre-school teacher education was conducted between 2012 and 2015. The study generated online material, mainly from a Facebook Group used by students and teacher, and field notes from participant observations, transcribed interviews and a field diary. Through application of a socio-cultural perspective on information literacy, the netnographical material was analysed using the concepts appropriation and identity. To analyse the discursive level, four national policy documents with demands for increased digital competence in teacher education were analysed using Carol Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach. The findings show how views on learning and identity interact with the materiality of the digital tools and the enabling and constraining properties of the local learning environment when information literacies are enacted. The identity position discussion-oriented student is connected to how the Facebook Group is appropriated as a relation-building tool and a relational information literacy. This type of information literacy entails a view on learning as co-learning, rooted in the historical development of pre-school teacher education, and a non-hierarchical understanding of teacher and student roles. The identity positions goal-oriented student and customer-oriented student are connected to how the Facebook Group is appropriated as a collaborative problem-solving tool and a pragmatic information literacy. This form of information literacy reflects instrumental and neoliberal views on learning, and a traditional understanding of teacher and student roles. The policy analysis shows how an economic and competitive perspective underpins demands for increased digital competence in teacher education, and how the value of digital tools for learning and teaching is taken for granted. The idea of co-learning, that is found to be influential but not fully accepted at the pre-school teacher education, is difficult to combine with an economic perspective emphasising measurability and quantification. The economic perspective is partly compatible with a pragmatic information literacy. The findings of the dissertation shed light on the gap between what is described as important in policy documents and what teacher students and teachers describe as important when digital tools are used in teacher education

Where identity meets information : teacher trainees' performance of identity positions and information activities

Introduction. This paper reports findings from an on-going analysis of how pre-school teacher trainees position their identities, as learners and future pre-school teachers, as information activities are performed in a Facebook Group and on a blog. Method. The analysis is based on results from an ethnographic study at a pre-school teacher-training programme at a Swedish university. Participant observations and interviews were conducted from November 2013 to January 2014, among a class of 249 students who started the programme in 2011. Analysis. Three types of identity positions are identified through comparative and thematic analysis of 147 Facebook conversations. Interviews with students and teachers are analysed to contextualize and validate the findings from the online interactions. Results. Three identity positions are identified: discussion-oriented learner, goal-oriented learner and customer-oriented learner. The way a student commits to others, to ideas and to a career choice affects the performance of identity positions and information activities. Conclusion. The findings presented in this paper begin to chart how the performance of identity positions is connected to the performance of information activities in teacher training. Results suggest that a socio-cultural understanding of identity positioning is valuable for understanding how information activities are performed.Paper, not in proceeding.</p