Just Collaboration or Really Something Else? On Joint-Use Libraries and Normative Institutional Change with Two Examples from Sweden

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 experiences of the establishment of two joint use libraries in Sweden: Sambiblioteket in Härnösand and Almedalsbiblioteket in Visby. Conclusions are drawn that show that the establishment of joint use libraries is a very complex process of change. Norms and values of the collaborating units are challenged, and the institutional identities of participating libraries as well as the professional identities of the librarians are subject to change. This is due to a shift in normative institutional identity, which makes it possible to claim that joint use libraries may actually be regarded as a new form of library with a unique identity. In claiming this, a need for further library and information science research on joint use libraries is called for.