This panel explores how traditional and algorithmic AI-driven classification systems—such as recommendation engines, social media platforms, and conversational AI like ChatGPT—impact cultural dynamics and raise important questions about our social and political lives. By categorizing users, content, and interactions, these systems create feedback loops that amplify cultural divisions and ideological silos. Modern culture increasingly reflects and engages with issues related to classification. In contemporary popular and academic discussions, there is ongoing debate over categories such as gender: Who is included in the definitions of "women" and "men"? Who has the authority to represent the perspectives of others? What kinds of information do algorithms prioritize? What datasets are created and used to train generative AI technologies? These questions delve into our understanding of "the other," the processes by which we create categories, and how we interpret—or sometimes fail to interpret—those categories. They also address the organization of information and culture in our immediate environment.

This article reports conclusions from a three-year research project on Swedish public libraries. The focus of the project is on librarians experience of libraries mission to promote democracy when democratic norms and values are challenged politically by radical right populism. Results of a longitudinal survey point to stability and lack of political interest over time, but increased societal polarization causes several ethical dilemmas for librarians. Examples of illegitimate political influence and librarians adapting to changes in the political climate call for renewed discussions on the professional role and understandings of democracy in library practice.

This paper presents an analysis of how library professionals in Sweden and Denmark perceive the democratic role of the library profession in the polarised political landscape of today. Relating to research on the democratic role of libraries, professional ethics and cultural policies, empirical data was gathered through seven group interviews with library professionals from eleven local libraries in south Sweden and Jutland in Denmark. Results indicate a commonly perceived discrepancy between general formulations of values found in professional codes of ethics, and practical librarianship. Dealing with threats and challenges against liberal democratic values in the public library requires professional ethical considerations that in individual cases may question the need for value-neutrality among library professionals if the basic democratic mission of the library is to be upheld.

Folkbiblioteken framträder i allt högre grad som en arena för politisk konflikt och turbulens. Denna utveckling ger i sin tur upphov till ett flertal dilemman. I detta kapitel vill biblioteks- och informationsvetarna Hanna Carlsson, Fredrik Hanell och Joacim Hansson i dialog med Maria Ehrenberg, som arbetat som regionbibliotekarie i Region Halland, diskutera de utmaningar och möjligheter som folkbiblioteksinstitutionens demokratibärande uppdrag står inför i samtidens politiska landskap.

Purpose

In this Festchrift article for Michael Buckland, the author discusses works from the French Documentation Movement in the 1940s and 1950s with regard to how it formulates bibliographic classification systems as documents. Significant writings by Suzanne Briet, Éric de Grolier and Robert Pagès are analyzed in the light of current document-theoretical concepts and discussions.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual analysis.

Findings

The French Documentation Movement provided a rich intellectual environment in the late 1940s and early 1950s, resulting in original works on documents and the ways these may be represented bibliographically. These works display a variety of approaches from object-oriented description to notational concept-synthesis, and definitions of classification systems as isomorph documents at the center of politically informed critique of modern society.

Originality/value

The article brings together historical and conceptual elements in the analysis which have not previously been combined in Library and Information Science literature. In the analysis, the article discusses significant contributions to classification and document theory that hitherto have eluded attention from the wider international Library and Information Science research community. Through this, the article contributes to the currently ongoing conceptual discussion on documents and documentality.

This paper reports from a study produced within the currently ongoing project Public libraries in a changed political landscape – a democratic mission for a new era? The paper compares experiences of librarians and library assistants in Sweden and Denmark concerning how they perceive the democratic role of the library profession in the political landscape of today. Relating to research on the democratic role of libraries, library ethics and issues on neutrality, empirical data was gathered through seven group interviews with library professionals from eleven local libraries in south Sweden and Jutland in Denmark. Results indicate a commonly perceived discrepancy between general formulations of values formulated in professional codes of ethics, and practical librarianship. Dealing with threats and challenges against liberal democratic values in the public library requires an ethical toolbox that in individual cases may question the need for value-neutrality among librarians and library assistants if the basic mission of the library is to be upheld.

Kungliga biblioteken beslöt 2008 att börja ämnesklassificera den svenska nationalbibliografin med det amerikanska Dewey-systemet istället för det svenska SAB-systemet. Dewey-systemet var då, och är idag, världens mest spridda klassifikationssystem för bibliotek, använt i över 140 länder. De svenska bibliotekens relation till Dewey-systemet går dock betydligt längre tillbaka än så och har präglats av en pendling mellan entusiasm och motstånd. Så vad är Dewey-systemet för en typ av klassifikationssystem och hur är det präglat av dess upphovsman Melvil Dewey och dennes samtid i 1870-talets USA?  Varför har de svenska biblioteken tvekat att arbeta med Dewey-systemet när andra länders bibliotek använt det? Vilka särskilda utmaningar har setts som viktiga för folk- och skolbiblioteken vid den svenska övergången till Dewey-systemet? Frågor som dessa diskuteras i denna bok på ett sätt som bidrar till att skapa förståelse för det komplexa i bibliotekens sätt att dela in sina böcker och andra medier efter ämne, allt i ljuset av bibliotekens samhälleliga och teknologiska utveckling.

This article reports from a project on the role of public libraries in language assimilation policies directed against the Meänkieli-speaking Tornedalian minority in the far north of Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. As libraries in the Torne Valley area, bordering on Finland, were maintained under state control, they became tools in the near eradication of Meänkieli in a complex set of policies that were in effect until 1957, promoting a uniform Swedish language and culture. Building on sociological conflict theory and the analysis of unpublished local documentation, the article brings to light conditions previously unknown about the Swedish public libraries in the northernmost part of the country. The article concludes by reflecting on the role of Swedish libraries today as important tools for the revitalization of Meänkieli, aimed at strengthening the identity and visibility of the Tornedalian minority.