In this thesis the motivations of Swedish Library and Information Science (LIS) students to choose and study a LIS program is explored. Through an open text response survey, data has been gathered in order to explore the varied intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect students' motivations. One prominent group in the local LIS programme are second career librarians. LIS programs have a higher rate of career changers than other programmes at local universities. In the LIS field we have a unique opportunity to explore why people choose to change their careers and what makes LIS an attractive field to switch to. In exploring students’ motivations, we can also discover what the modern librarian stereotype looks like for both those who are new to libraries and those who are already familiar with them.  

In order to study the underlying motivations, we use a Qualitative Content Analysis method to sort and organize our data, then we apply the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to our data.