This essay deals with the cultural demands on the fiction available at public libraries, i. e. the problem with deciding the demands of quality of fiction. How come that the users can find novels by authors like Colleen McCullough and Belva Plain, but very seldom the works by Jackie Collins and Margit Sandemo? The valuations seem to differ from one library to another, even though some books, like the works by authors mentioned above, never will be bought by libraries.
During the period of 1991-1994 a project called the GÖK-project (GÖK is short for Gothenburg. Ömskoldsvik. Kalmar, the cities who participated in the project) took place, in order to meet the users' demands on the public libraries. The reason to this was the sinking number of loans since the middle of the 1980's. The project was appreciated by most of the users, but at the same time criticised by other persons. active in the Swedish cultural life. These persons feared that the project would deteriorate the literary standard at the public librairies.
The popular literature has through the ages been accused of being conservative, racistic and destructive, especially for young readers. Since a long time ago this kind of literature also has been considered as bad for women. This point of view as regards what is good or bad literature has earlier been predominate at public librairies and not until the last decades this attitude has changed.