Hylluppställning i förändring – En studie över svenska folkbiblioteks alternativa hylluppställningar

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study how public libraries in Sweden use alternative shelf arrangements that differ from the library’s original classification system, which in Swedish public libraries usually is the SAB-system. I sent out a survey to 169 public libraries, where I received 114 replies. 77 of these stated that they had some kind of alternative shelf arrangement, therefore these are the ones that are included in my study. I wanted to investigate in what way the libraries had changed their shelf arrangement and why this decision was made. I also wanted to explore the staff’s attitude towards this change, and how they perceived the user-satisfaction after the change. I came to the conclusion that most libraries had arranged their collections after category and genre. The most prominent reason to change their shelf arrangements was to make the library more user-friendly, the SAB-system was considered to be too complicated for the users to understand. Most of the staff had a positive attitude towards the change, they considered it to be an exciting project and something that would benefit both staff and users. They were of the opinion that most users had appreciated the change, and that it had assisted them, better than before, in finding what they were looking for in the library.