Rural librarians - professional role and identity in societal digitization

Bridging the digital divide is a task in where public libraries, and its librarians, are key actors due to their democratic mission and local presence. The digitization of society impacts citizens through withdrawal of local institutions which leaves the library as the place to recieve help to navigate digital systems and gain knowledge of technical solutions. This societal change is especially palpable in rural areas. This study explores the librarians professional role in relation to the library as an institution and the digitization of society from a rural perspective. The analysis of this study is based in professional theory and new institutional theory. The data for this study is collected through semi structured interviews that yields highly subjective results and therefor calls for the use of qualitative contentanalysis. The findings in this study show that librarians percieve the rural library to be a societally central, democratic venue and that the societal digitization impacts the librarians widely through changing the vantage point of their interaction with their patrons. Working with bridging the digital divide is restricted through lack of economic and time-related resources. The analysis shows that the librarians are positioned between the logic of the profession, that premiers ethical integrity and the meeting with the patrons, and the institutional logic that brings demands of digital service in regards to authority matters, an increased work load and adaptational work that seeks to legitimize the library and the profession. This study concludes that public librarians in rural areas are in a state of change regarding their profession, where the societal digitization is reshaping the professional identity, the nature of the work and responsibility thereof and where the individual interpretation of the role takes on great importance for how the libraries mission is being realized locally. The legitimacy of the library appears as strongly connected to its physical presence and the democratic function in smaller communities, but this study also shows the tension between the broadened workload and lack of resources. This makes the societal digitization both a possibility and a liability for the profession.