There is no law regulating that the Swedish regions need to offer hospital libraries. If they decide to offer at least one hospital library, then it has to be included in the regional library plan. It is not regulated what the hospital libraries should offer, so therefore it can differ between different regions. This depends on what the regions choose to prioritize (Ranemo, 2019).

This study aimed to explore what is written in the Swedish library plans about the roles that the hospital librarians have in order to meet the information needs among health care staff and scientists. It also aimed to explore what is written about the role that hospital librarians have to contribute with evidence based information to the health care staff.

This study analyzed library plans from 16 Swedish regions. These were analysed using discourse analysis focusing on power relations and the model What’s the problem represented to be (WPR) by Bacchi (2009), that sees policy as discourse.

The following discourses were identified in order to answer the first part of the purpose: the discourse about increasing awareness about the resourses offered by the hospital library, the discourse about the teaching hospital librarian, the discourse about the supporting role that the librarian can offer. In order to answer the other part of the purpose the following discourses were identified: the discourse about the hospital librarian’s role to contribute to increased patient safety and effectivity, the discourse about the hospital librarian’s role to turn evidence into practice.