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A prerequisite for pictures to be studied and used as sources of knowledge is that they are collected, organised, and made accessible. The aim of this thesis has been to analyse these processes within a specific cultural heritage institution – the National Library of Sweden’s picture collection.

Pictures play a central role as bearers of communication and information in the information space of our society. They have increasingly drawn attention to themselves both as historical artefacts and as culturally important and “identity creating” objects. In addition, recent technological advances make it possible to disseminate pictures in a hitherto unprecedented manner, leading to new challenges in how to improve access to such material. Much attention has been geared toward finding and implementing a standard solution applicable for various tasks and situations, irrespective of domains.

In contrast to such homogenising ambitions, I instead argue for the elaboration of solutions more sensitive to domain specific demands, where the comprehen-sion of pictures must be sought in shared communities of meaning. Influenced by socio-cultural and discursive perspectives this study sees knowledge and meaning as historically constructed and socially situated.

The study is divided into two main parts. Part One includes the introduction and the discussion of theory and method. Part Two consists of the empirical investigation and a conclusion. The former consists of four chapters centering on the historical background, a presentation of the picture material, the institutional practices and the knowledge organisation tools deployed by the National Library’s Picture Collection. In the conclusion I argue that our visual cultural heritage is constructed with the aid of the tools, discourses, and practices used in our institutional settings; in this particular case the Picture Collection of The National Library of Sweden.