The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to describe how Swedish public libraries use Web 2.0-tools and their experiences of using the tools. Focus of the study lies in the contact between public libraries and their patrons on the Web 2.0-tools. For the purposes of the study, the use of weblogs and MySpace were chosen for examination. The methodology used for this study was qualitative interviews.

A qualitative study of high school student teachers' ideas about libraries and school libraries.Interviews have been conducted with future teachers about the library's role in their education,their views on library functions in high school and whether they as teachers will use theschool library. The results show that the students have had some instruction concerninghow to use the library as students, but very little as regards their future teaching. The professorsof teacher education focus on the fact that the library should be used in high schoolteaching, not how to use it. Despite this, the student teachers look very positively upon libraries.Libraries play an important part in their education and they are all sure that they asteachers will use the school library, which includes interacting with the librarian. To them, themost important school library function is to allow pupils to seek information..

The aim of this study is to examine the services offered by the public libraries in the context of distance learning students. I wanted to examine if there has been any discussion among the public libraries on how the new needs and demands affect them. To get a premonition on the development in Sweden I have focused on the public libraries in the province of Blekinge, which in many ways can be looked upon as precursors. Interviews have taken place with the distance learning students contacts at the local public libraries, the responsible librarian and a distance learning organiser at the local university college, the county library consultant and one of the chief librarians. I have reached the conclusion that no thorough discussion on the far-reaching aspects has taken place.

Projects to equip every student and teacher with a laptop, with the intention to improve academic results, have rapidly spread through the country. New technology, new contents and new ways of learning have changed the learning envi-ronment. The school library, being a part of this environ-ment, faces the same changes and challenges.The purpose of this thesis is to study how the school library is being affected when a One-to-One project is carried out in a learning environment. The research questions concern how the school library is viewed within the organization and also how the change affects both the school library and the school librarian.The empirical material of the thesis includes five qualitative interviews carried out on location, at a single selected school. The interviews are followed by a study of relevant documents, all produced within the organization.To understand the organization in which the school library operates, as well as the school library itself, I chose to divide the theoretical approach in two: Christensen?s et al.

This bachelor?s thesis examines the ideas behind the phenomenon art exhibitions in public libraries. My interest is to see if and how the art exhibitions can support the libraries in being a public sphere in Jürgen Habermas? sense, open for all citizens and their opinions. My study therefore has two purposes.

This thesis is an attempt to study computer games and playful computer programs for childrenand youth at Swedish public libraries. The main method used, is qualitative interviews.The main reason the libraries in the study offer computer games and playful computer programsto their users, is that every member of the society shall have opportunity to use newtechnology such as computers and computer programs. The users of this media are for themost part boys. The librarians in our study wish to have pedagogical games and programswithout violent themes at their libraries. Lending computer games and computer programs isnot of any priority for the libraries..

The purpose of this study is to examine the physical space of children?s libraries in Sweden, and also to see which influences there are in the literature about the same subject. What ideas exist in the literature about the physical room of children?s libraries? We have studied how and if these influences can be seen in a selected number of children?s libraries. Our theoretical perspective is based on Anthony Gidden?s theory of construction.

The aim of this master thesis has been to investigate discussions about public access to Internet in public libraries. Areas of interest were the debate in Sweden as well as in the United States. The approach was qualitative and questionnaires were distributed by e-mail to a number of Swedish public libraries. The results from the survey were then supplemented with a theoretical background and a literature study. The usable questionnaires obtained from 20 libraries showed a rather uniform approach among the Swedish librarians of how the Internet is best provided by public libraries.

Today, "the digital library" is the common way of describing a managed collection of information, with associated services, stored in digital formats and accessible over a network. Digital libraries have mainly been developed at research libraries, but during the last few years public libraries have started to offer similar services.The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how the Swedish public libraries plan to develop their digital libraries according to their mission statements, and in what way they have implemented them at their web sites. 21 public libraries, the largest in each Swedish county, were investigated.The library mission statements are investigated to find out in what terms the digital libraries are described and to what extent. The library websites are examined with respect to what kind of digital services are offered, to what extent they supplement or replace the physical library, and if there are new digital services not found in the physical library.In most mission statements the digital library is referred to in sweeping terms like "IT activities" and "new media". However, a few of the libraries clearly regard the digital library as an important part of the future operations, speaking of it in well defined and extensive terms.The public library websites are relatively homogeneous when it comes to services supplementing physical library activities, like web access to the library catalogue and links to other library catalogues.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s access to specific children?s activities at Swedish public libraries 2005. The thesis is based on literature studies and qualitative interviews with children?s librarians, library directors and local politicians at two demographically different libraries in Gothenburg.The sub questions are: What measures exist to promote children?s access to public libraries and children?s activities when it comes to: law and other political statements: different efforts on the state level and different efforts on the municipal level in the direct activity with children at public libraries? What driving forces and needs justify activities for children at public libraries? How will the responsible persons judge that the efforts are sufficient? The result of the study shows that children?s access to library activity has increased in the last couple of years due to reorganization, economic savings with closing down of library affiliates and because libraries have given priority to other things, like IT and new media. Children?s librarians have got new assignments and less time for children?s activity.The conclusion of our investigation is that children?s librarians are ambitious in their work, but unfortunately don?t give children?s library activity adequate resources.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the arguments that are being used when closing and establishing peoples libraries. During the 90:ies, in the community of Gothenburg, 4 public libraries were closed and another 3 public libraries were opened. A possible reason for this change lies in the reform from the city Committee that split the community of Gothenburg into 21 pieces; all with one centrally appointed political Committee. The library activity has since the reform was implemented got worse in some areas, foremost in the already neglected city sections, and better in some areas, which where able to establish new libraries. Argumentation analysis indicates that the arguments used at closure where mainly economical and neither the number nor relevance and validity of the arguments where good.

The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the visibility of the university libraries in the strategic documents from the actual universities to which they belong. And also, the image of themselves they send out, are examined. By examining different kinds of descriptions we want to get a clearer picture of how and in what amount the libraries are mentioned in highest level strategies. By doing this we expect to find out the libraries' strategic role in higher education and research. The research questions are: What role and function are assigned to the university libraries in strategies created by the schools' highest administrative levels? How do the libraries present themselves in their own strategies? The approach is cross sectional and the time frame is year 2008.

This paper is about employees' opinion towards libraries. The target group consists of employees at industrial research institutes in Sweden. Libraries offer several more services today than they have done before. I think many people do not recognise all of them and I also think the knowledge and the opinion about libraries have to do with use of them. Since I am curious about if this is true or not the purpose of this essay is to find out, through an attitude research, the employees', at industrial research institutes, opinion about library service.

Library and information science students often ask themselves if their education will be sufficient and adapted to the work tasks they will meet with as future librarians. It is the aim of this Master thesis to investigate LIS-graduates' experiences of the transfer from academic studies into professional life. The thesis thus treats four questions: I: What problems, if any, does the LIS-graduate experience when first employed? 2: Does the recently employed librarian feel that the academically obtained knowledge is applicable in professional life? And, if so, how does it apply? 3: Does the new employee find that there are areas in which his/her academic education has been insufficient? 4: What is the general attitude towards LIS-graduates' education among colleagues and is the library staff prepared to provide the necessary instructions? The investigation is performed through interviews with eight LIS-graduates, all of whom have recently started working as public librarians. The analysis is based on the concepts of competence, qualifications, work skills, knowledge and in the processes of formal and practical learning.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study resource allocation among district libraries within Stockholm?s City Library (SSB) on three different occasions ? 1996, 2001 and 2005 ? and to examine whether there exist any inconsistency between the state of the allocation of resources and what might be considered reasonable. During the course of the study, it became apparent that some measurements are more relevant than others when determining whether the allocation of resources is reasonably fair. The most relevant ratio is the share of net cost per capita in relation to population and the population?s composition of children, youngsters and persons with foreign background as a result of relevant political governing documents giving priority to these three groups.