The new library user in Sweden: A LibQUAL+™ study at Lund University

To examine how the library user emerges in the context of the LibQUAL+™ application in Sweden in 2004.

The paper examines the following aspects: how the information control dimension is depicted in the results of the Swedish participants; how the information control dimension compares between the Swedish implementation and other libraries; the ”new user” as he emerges from the comments that support the notion of the self‐sufficient, independent, and autonomous information seeker at Lund University; and the new users as reflected in the linguistic translation issues of the LibQUAL+™ survey instrument in Swedish.

Library users in Sweden have indicated that the information control dimension is an important one to them and this is the one dimension where libraries are not faring well. This finding is replicated in other non‐Swedish libraries. In terms of the comments provided, 372 LibQUAL+™ comments (most of them in Swedish) were analyzed and they all show the importance of self‐sufficiency. Last, the LibQUAL+™ translation in Swedish revealed that the “new” library user wants a library survey that articulates library issues in a more modern language and not the traditional and more conservative Swedish diction – in other words, the expectation for modernization is also reflected in the actual phrases used in the survey instrument.

Contributes to the field of in‐depth cultural studies and qualitative analysis in the different contexts where the “new library” users are encountered, to understand both the similarities of the “new” users across contexts and the unique aspects and circumstances they face in the context of their traditional encounters with the library.