Libraries are a resource that provides everyone with free access to information, knowledge, and culture and that through their activities inspire users to partake of these things. Thus people are given the opportunity to use their democratic right to develop, think, speak, and write freely. As stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardlessof frontiers’. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) has, together with national library associations, drawn up manifestos for clarifying the principles and basic values upon which the activities of libraries are based. Several of the manifestos are recommended by UNESCO.
But how does this function in the daily work in Swedish libraries? To find out The Swedish Library Association contacted Åsa Söderlind and Gullvor Elf, researchers at Högskolan i Borås, for a study. The study focused on mapping how libraries in their media planning relate to and live up to the normative library documents. The goal has been to obtain deeper knowledge of the libraries’ media strategy work.
This is a revised and shortened version of that report in English.
