In 2008, the National Library of Sweden decided to discontinue the use of the Swedish classification system SAB when classifying the national bibliography in favor of DDC, from 2011 onwards. At the same time, the Swedish Library Association advocated for all Swedish libraries to follow the National Library’s decision and switch to DDC. While the university libraries switched to DDC following these decisions and recommendations, the transition for the public libraries has been slow. 

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine to what extent SAB, DDC and different shelving solutions are used at Swedish public libraries and what arguments are used for the respective systems. Applying a neo-institutional perspective, the study aims to explain how the usage of a particular classification system could impact public libraries’ legitimacy. 

A web questionnaire was sent out to the main library for all 290 Swedish municipalities, of which 203 main libraries responded. The results show that SAB is the most used classification system at Swedish public libraries, and that a switch to DDC is not prioritized. Arguments for continued use of SAB are mainly that staff and patrons are used to it, while arguments for switching to DDC relates to the National Library’s decision to switch. The study concludes that both classification systems can be used without impacting the public libraries legitimacy for now, but that SAB will become more and more outdated and might have negative effects on the public libraries’ legitimacy in the future.