Yttre påverkan – inre anpassning. En kvalitativ fallstudie av Biblioteket.se

Abstract

The subject of this Master’s thesis is the process of change in a public library context, the implementation of the Stockholm City Library’s homepage Biblioteket.se. The aim is to examine the factors that influence this particular change and how they affect the process and extent of change in practice. The study designed as a qualitative case study is based primarily on document analysis, and supplemented by an interview. DiMaggio’s and Powell’s three mechanisms of change; coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism, is applied. In conclusion, the library is adapting through an institutional process of homogenization which takes place in the field where similar organizations exist. The analysis shows that the coercive factors in the form of laws and expectations in society impact the process of change, by demands for increased electronic interactivity in the context of the economic policy developments, which simultaneously leads to a more market oriented approach. Also factors related to the organization affect the library which as an institution, imitates more powerful organizations, but also trends in the field. An important hypothesis put forward is that institutional change takes place only on a symbolic level. Finally, the norms of the librarian profession indirectly act as a motivator for the implementation of the homepage, even though that results in an increase in demand management that is incompatible with public library values. In fact, the librarian profession is itself under the influence of pressure of both the society and the organization’s propensity to imitate successful organizations and other trends in the environment.