Joacim Hansson

Linnaeus University | lnu · School of Cultural Sciences, dept. of Library and Information Science

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. Methodologic...

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 individual...

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...

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 classif...

This paper is a case study of research publication practices at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Linnaeus University, a young, mid-sized university in the south-east of Sweden. Research output was measured from publications in the local institutional repository following the guidelines of local research policy as defined in university document...

Purpose As the humanities develop in the realm of increasingly more pronounced digital scholarship, it is important to provide quality subject access to a vast range of heterogeneous information objects in digital services. The study aims to paint a representative picture of the current state of affairs of the use of subject index terms in humaniti...

Provenance research in digitized memory institution collections is mainly devoted to documenting and mapping the trajectories of the physical source documents across time, place and contexts, primarily by developing metadata standards and data models. The provenance of the digital reproduction and its relation to one or several physical source docu...

The aim of this paper is to investigate what happens if we leave the criteria of materiality and permanence behind in the study of documents. How far can we stretch the definition of a document or define a documentation process in a situation where neither the originary fact, or object, nor that by which this is represented is material or permanent...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to make a contribution to the theoretical understanding of documents and documentary agency in society through examples from a defined institutional and professional setting; and second, to create an understanding for the role of ethical codes in the process of defining and developing modern li...

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to analyse three Scandinavian iSchools in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with regard to their intentions of becoming iSchools and curriculum content in relation to these intentions. By doing so, a picture will be given of the international expansion of the iSchool concept in terms of organisational symbolism and prac...

Introduction. When using bibliometrics for research evaluation, the classification of research fields is an issue of great importance. The purpose of this paper is to outline a brief theoretical framework for analysing the role of classification in research evaluation practices. Theory. Taking departure in the concept of ‘boundary objects’ we dev...

Libraries hold a long history of a multidimensional focus on collecting, storing, organizing, preserving and providing access to information resources for various types of users. Data is nothing new to Library and Information Science (LIS) and Big Data presents a quantitative expansion of an already well-known object of study. Scholarly communicati...

This chapter pursues an argument that librarianship has a long tradition of consistent ethical statements regarding the profession that, in more or less formal ways, have been prescriptive in character. The main focus is the relation between these statements and the kinds of documents in which they are formulated. It is argued that at various times...

This study analyzes codes of ethics, seen as documents, and their role in supporting the professional practice of librarianship. Theoretically it is placed within the scholarly discussion on the role and function of documents in various practices. Specific interest is directed towards the concept of ”performative documentality”. Empirically, the an...

Subject terms play a crucial role in resource discovery but require substantial effort to produce. Automatic subject classification and indexing address problems of scale and sustainability and can be used to enrich existing bibliographic records, establish more connections across and between resources, and enhance consistency of bibliographic data...

Subject terms play a crucial role in resource discovery but require substantial effort to produce. Automatic subject classification and indexing address problems of scale and sustainability and can be used to enrich existing bibliographic records, establish more connections across and between resources and enhance consistency of bibliographic data....

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to contribute to a discussion about the future of librarianship. Design/methodology/approach – An analytical framework is used to discuss the future of libraries. The framework is based on current trends in contemporary librarianship and is used as a way of structuring predictions about the future of librar...

This article discusses potential consequences of implementing bibliometrics as an institutionalized practice in academic libraries. Results are reported from a survey among libraries in Sweden with organized bibliometric activities. Incorporating bibliometric activities is one way of redefining and widening the role of the library. Implementation o...

This article reports on a study of academic librarians' views of their work and possibilities regarding support for researchers' publishing. Institutional repositories and Open Access are areas being dealt with in particular. Methods used are highly qualitative; data was gathered at two Swedish university libraries over a six month period through f...

This article discusses the relation between epistemology, social organization and knowledge organization. Three examples are used to show how this relation has proven to be historically stable: 1) the organization of knowledge in 18th century encyclopedias; 2) the problem of bias in the international introduction of DDC in early 20th century librar...

This article frames digitization as a knowledge organization practice in libraries and museums. The primarily discriminatory practices of museums are compared with the non-discriminatory practices of libraries when managing their respective cultural heritage collections. Digitization of cultural heritage brings new practices, tools and arenas that...

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a Swedish national survey study finalised in late 2010. The purpose of the project was to create a picture of Swedish library services directed to the five minority groups defined as “national minorities” in the country: Romani, Sámi, Jews, Tornedalians and Swedish Finns. The study focus...

Libraries and Identity summarizes the role of institutional identity in the emergence of new types of libraries such as joint-use libraries and digital libraries. Professional and institutional identity has shown to be one of the most problematic, yet overlooked issues to deal with when traditional libraries such as public libraries and academic li...

The paper highlights and discusses concepts and practices of national library digitization. Two conceptual models are suggested in order to help strengthen scholarly analyses of digitization practices within libraries: the distinction between quantitative and qualitative digitization, on the one hand, and the prism metaphor for understanding the na...

This article is part of a larger research project focussing on institutional change in the Ugandan library sector from the 1960s up until today, with special focus on the development of the National Library of Uganda. The article is based primarily on official publications such as di ferent legislation passed by the Ugandan Parliament on library is...

This article is an attempt to discuss the establishment of joint use libraries as something more than just administrative collaboration. It focuses on joint use solutions between public libraries and university college libraries. Normative institutionalism is used as a theoretical framework for the discussion, which draws from studies on and experi...

Bibliotekshistorien rymmer ett antal urkunder som påverkat bibliotekens och bibliotekarieyrkets samtid och framtid. Förordet till Konrad Gesners Bibliotheca Universalis från 1545 är en sådan. Anthony Panizzis 91 katalogiseringsregler från 1839 och Melvil Deweys banbrytande klassifikationssystem från 1876 är två andra. I Sverige skulle Valfrid Palmg...

Dr. Joacim Hansson is a senior lecturer at the SSLIS. He teaches courses on history of LIS, theory of knowledge organization, and research methodology. He has published several books and international articles on the ideology of classification, the scientific identity of LIS, hermeneutics in LIS, and institutional analyses of joint use libraries. A...

Purpose To analyse the use of hermeneutics in library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach Presents a literature‐based conceptual analysis of: the definition of hermeneutics in LIS; and the practical use of hermeneutics within recent LIS studies. Findings The use of hermeneutics in LIS has increased during the last decade, a...

The article identifies two distinct sections, one within the public library sphere and one in academic libraries, relevant for the development of a unique Swedish classification system (the SAB-system) to be used in public libraries. These are used to analyse the social and discursive influences that led to a re ection of the DDC as the common clas...