| 1. |
- Carlsson, Hanna, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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”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
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies. - : University of Copenhagen. - 2597-0593. ; 3:1, s. 26-43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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 ademocracy 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 withseven 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 pressureis 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.
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| 2. |
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Doing Digital Humanities : Concepts, Approaches, Cases
- 2020
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital Humanities is today an integrated part of humanistic research at many universities, and initiatives in the field take a variety of forms. At Linnaeus University, Digital Humanities currently develops as a cross-disciplinary field, building on existing collaborations between faculties in the form of an iInstitute tied to the international iSchool Organization, as part of a research excellence centre on Data Intensive Sciences and Applications (DISA), and European collaboration within the DARIAH-EU network – to mention a few. The papers in this volume emanate from a conference on Digital Humanities, arranged and funded by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Linnaeus University on March 12–13, 2020. It is part of the university’s initiative to implement Digital Humanities across departments and faculties, with both a scientific and pedagogical approach, building on competences already present among its researchers and teachers. Focusing the humanities as such, this volume contains contributions from the scholarly fields of Archaeology, History, Library and Information Science, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Media and Communication Studies, E-learning, and the Study of Religions. It displays a variety of cross-disciplinary connections, new research questions, and innovative methodological approaches – all hallmarks of the wide field of Digital Humanities.
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| 3. |
- Engström, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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An Act of Balance : Exploring the Boundaries of Librarianship in Times of Political Turmoil in Sweden and Denmark
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper reports from a study produced within the currently ongoing project Public libraries in a changed political landscape – a democratic mission for a new era? The paper compares experiences of librarians and library assistants in Sweden and Denmark concerning how they perceive the democratic role of the library profession in the political landscape of today. Relating to research on the democratic role of libraries, library ethics and issues on neutrality, empirical data was gathered through seven group interviews with library professionals from eleven local libraries in south Sweden and Jutland in Denmark. Results indicate a commonly perceived discrepancy between general formulations of values formulated in professional codes of ethics, and practical librarianship. Dealing with threats and challenges against liberal democratic values in the public library requires an ethical toolbox that in individual cases may question the need for value-neutrality among librarians and library assistants if the basic mission of the library is to be upheld.
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| 4. |
- Engström, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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An Act of Balance : Exploring the Boundaries of Librarianship in Times of Political Turmoil in Sweden and Denmark
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nordisk kulturpolitisk tidskrift. - 1403-3216 .- 2000-8325. ; 27:1, s. 8-25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an analysis of how library professionals in Sweden and Denmark perceive the democratic role of the library profession in the polarised political landscape of today. Relating to research on the democratic role of libraries, professional ethics and cultural policies, empirical data was gathered through seven group interviews with library professionals from eleven local libraries in south Sweden and Jutland in Denmark. Results indicate a commonly perceived discrepancy between general formulations of values found in professional codes of ethics, and practical librarianship. Dealing with threats and challenges against liberal democratic values in the public library requires professional ethical considerations that in individual cases may question the need for value-neutrality among library professionals if the basic democratic mission of the library is to be upheld.
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| 5. |
- Golub, Koraljka, et al.
(författare)
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Subject indexing in humanities : A comparison between a local university repository and an international bibliographic service
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Documentation. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0022-0418 .- 1758-7379. ; 76:6, s. 1193-1214
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – As the humanities develop in the realm of increasingly more pronounced digital scholarship, it isimportant to provide quality subject access to a vast range of heterogeneous information objects in digitalservices. The study aims to paint a representative picture of the current state of affairs of the use of subjectindex terms in humanities journal articles with particular reference to the well-established subject access needsof humanities researchers, with the purpose of identifying which improvements are needed in this context.Design/methodology/approach – The comparison of subject metadata on a sample of 649 peer-reviewedjournal articles from across the humanities is conducted in a university repository, against Scopus, the formerreflecting local and national policies and the latter being the most comprehensive international abstract andcitation database of research output.Findings – The study shows that established bibliographic objectives to ensure subject access for humanitiesjournal articles are not supported in either the world’s largest commercial abstract and citation databaseScopus or the local repository of a public university in Sweden. The indexing policies in the two services do notseem to address the needs of humanities scholars for highly granular subject index terms with appropriatefacets; no controlled vocabularies for any humanities discipline are used whatsoever.Originality/value – In all, not much has changed since 1990s when indexing for the humanities was shown tolag behind the sciences. The community of researchers and information professionals, today working togetheron digital humanities projects, as well as interdisciplinary research teams, should demand that their subjectaccess needs be fulfilled, especially in commercial services like Scopus and discovery services.
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| 6. |
- Hanell, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Public libraries in a changing political landscape : Results from a survey on political influence and pressure on public libraries in Southern Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Conceptions of Library and Information Science - CoLIS11. - : Oslo Metropolitan University.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction. When the definition of democracy and the meaning of a democratic society is re-negotiated and re-interpreted, the mission of the public library is placed in a new context. This paper reports findings from an ongoing research project focused on library managers’ and librarians’ lived experiences of recent political developments in Sweden. Method. Methodologically, the research project departs from the perspective of institutional ethnography, and combines a longitudinal survey study with interviews, focus-group interviews, and document studies. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a library manager survey.Findings. Results indicate that the interplay between libraries and the local political level is experienced as mostly well-functioning, although notable exceptions exist, and that the correspondence between national cultural- and library policies and politics of the participating municipalities is perceived as high. However, the paragraph from the Library Act about particular attention to national minorities and persons with a native language other than Swedish causes notable opposition between local and national political levels.Conclusion. Irregular political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is often connected to issues focused by radical right-wing parties. The study indicates a need to further investigate the intersection of (national) policies and (local) politics.
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| 7. |
- Hanell, Fredrik, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Public libraries in a changing political landscape : results from a survey on political influence and pressure on public libraries in Southern Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Information research. - : University of Borås. - 1368-1613. ; 27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When the definition of democracy and the meaning of a democratic society is renegotiated and reinterpreted, the mission of the public library is placed in a new context. This paper reports findings from an ongoing research project focused on library managers’ and librarians’ lived experiences of recent political developments in Sweden. Methodologically, the research project applies the perspective of institutional ethnography and combines a longitudinal survey study with interviews, focus- group interviews, and document studies. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a library manager survey.Results indicate that the interplay between libraries and the local political level is experienced as mostly well-functioning, although notable exceptions exist, and that the correspondence between national cultural- and library policies and politics of the participating municipalities is perceived as high. However, the Library Act paragraph, stipulating that particular attention should be devoted to national minorities and persons with a native language other than Swedish, causes notable opposition between local and national political levels. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is often connected to issues pursued by radical right-wing parties. The study indicates a need to further investigate the intersection of (national) policies and (local) politics.
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| 8. |
- Hansson, Joacim, 1966-
(författare)
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Bringing political upheaval and cultural trauma into order : a document-theoretical approach to the analysis of the social significance of bibliographic classification systems
- 2021
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Ingår i: Annual Meeting of the Document Academy 2021. - Växjö : Linnaeus University. - 9789189283985 ; , s. 29-30
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Knowledge organization systems, whether intended for use in libraries or bibliographic services, has a complex relation to the time and environment of their construction. In a famous paper from 1982, Eric de Grolier describes library classification systems as “cultural artefacts”, based on an analysis of the relation between classes and the size of catalog entries in 29 historically significant systems. His analysis displays a relation where systems mimetically represent knowledge production as seen in literature production. However, at the end of his paper, de Grolier indicates something more; that classification systems not only reproduce knowledge production, but also have the ability to anticipate future trends by formulating styntactic and semantic priorities in relation to current cultural and social developments. However, how it is possible to further analyze such abilities is not considered. Efforts to develop a deeper understanding of the relation between such developments and bibliographic systems have since been undertaken from various perspectives, although most, with a few notable exceptions, have done so by returning to a discussion on warrants initiated already in the first decades of the 20th century. This presentation and subsequent paper will address this issue by analysing the question of how it is possible to “read” a bibliographic classification system, not just in a way which establishes traditional perspectives such as literary, scientific, institutional or cultural warrants, but in a way that present the system, seen as an autonomous form of document, as part of a specific cultural, political or social environment and its development. This is being done through a discussion of social anthropologist Jack Goody’s concept of “écriture” as formulated in his critique of Ferdinand de Saussure’s ideas on the relation between written and spoken language, and philosopher Maurizio Ferraris formulation of documents as “inscribed acts”. Though widely different in scope, these two entry points prove fruitful in understanding bibliographic classification systems in a new way, exceeding the fundamentally mimetic relation between system and warrant usually assumed in classification research. The theoretical discussion is complemented with two empirical examples relating to dramatic social change and cultural trauma. The first example is the 1921 edition of the Swedish national classification system created for public libraries. This system was constructed when a new public library infrastructure was created in Sweden as part of the dramatic processes that led to the formal institutionalization of democracy during a period of social and political turmoil in the late 1910s and early 1920s. The second example relates to the need for Jewish libraries to make sense of the Holocaust within their collections and bibliographic work. The American Elazar system for Judaica libraries was constructed in the 1950s as part of the American initiated reformulation of Jewish cultural identity following the annihilation of the European Jewry in World War II. Concluding remarks address the methodological question on how to create an analytical framework for a reading of classification systems as socially significant documents in relation to cultural and social development. Suggestions are made on the basis of a revision of the author’s previous research, developing a methodology relating to French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s effort to establish a ‘hermeneutics of historical consciousness’.
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| 9. |
- Hansson, Joacim, 1966-
(författare)
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Bringing Political Upheaval and Cultural Trauma into Order : A Document-Theoretical Approach to the Social Signifificance of Bibliographic Classifification Systems
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings from the Document Academy. - Akron, OH : The University of Akron Press. - 2473-215X. ; 8:2, s. 1-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores the ability to define bibliographic classification systems as socially significant documents in a way that goes beyond their immediate function in the information retrieval process. It does so in dialog with theory on documents and documentality, and knowledge organization theory. Two examples show how development of new classification systems address social and cultural structures in periods of rapid social and cultural change and crisis. The first example discusses the design of a classification system for Swedish public libraries in the late 1910s, and the second addresses the re-formulation of the Holocaust experience in American Jewish library classification practice in the 1950s and 1960s. Results indicate that social significance to classification systems influence the definition their institutional context in relation to wider social issues and movements. The character of this influence suggests research on documentality needs to address the relation between form and content in documents defined as reifications of social acts.
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| 10. |
- Hansson, Joacim, 1966-
(författare)
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Classification Systems for Jewish Libraries and Bibliographies : Philosophy, Warrants and Relation to non-Jewish Bibliographic Practice
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Religious & Theological Information. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1047-7845 .- 1528-6924. ; 21:3-4, s. 99-121
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyzes bibliographic classification systems for Jewish libraries and Judaica from a cultural perspective, partly detached from their function as document retrieval tools. Theoretically and methodologically, the study refers to the significance of warrants as formulated in Library and Information Science. With specific interest in the relation between Jewish and non-Jewish classification and bibliography, examples are given of systems from Europe and the USA, primarily from the twentieth century. Results indicate that bibliographic classification systems not only represent documents but reproduce cultural and ideological preferences of both designers and historical situations. In their effort to document religion in a bibliographic context, the example systems help to formulate various aspects of Judaism through both hierarchical structuring and subject definition.
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