AbstractAttitudes towards the reference situation and the meetings between library users and librarians have become the subject of much debate in the library setting today. The aim of this two years master´s thesis has been to examine six librarian?s attitudes and apprehensions concerning the interactions between the librarian and the users in the library setting. We were also interested in knowing how a library can work to become more service oriented and customer centred. We conducted six interviews with librarians located at three different libraries in Sweden.

The purpose of this master´s thesis is to examine how the cultural exchange function of Swedish libraries may be perceived on their websites. A further intention is to examine how the library websites are used at the present. Two quantitative web-based surveys have been sent out to a great number of Swedish public libraries. The first survey was directed to the webmasters of the libraries, in order to review the different services offered by the Swedish library websites of today. The second survey was conducted with library directors, in order to visualise what services they consider ought to be present on their own library website.

A company library can only exist if it contributes to a positive result for the company. As endusers are beginning to perform searches on the Internet and have access to databases and electronic documents via their desktops it becomes important for company librarians to thoroughly think through what services should be offered to the users so that the library still contributes to the company s profit. The aim of this dissertation was to try to define the services that the company library offers its users having in mind the changes that have taken place concerning the availability of information. I also wanted to explore whether the librarians had the necessary competence to perform the services offered. Six information specialists were interviewed to give their view on the services their libraries offered.

This study examined the factors influencing dairy farmers´ decisions to invest in automated milking systems (AMS). The problem studied involves uncertainty, information and complexity for dairy farmers in specific decision contexts. The frame of reference in the thesis combines contingency theory and decision theory and is used in a qualitative analysis of a set interview with dairy farmers who have recently bought an AMS and salespersons from Delaval, one of the AMS suppliers.The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the decision making processes of dairy farmers, and in particular to identify which types of factors influence the outcome of an investment decision in the technological development of a farm.The study uses Thompsons` (1967) theory about the structure that organizations develop to handle the input of information. Thus, interest is focused on how a farm business structure handles information in the AMS decision, investigating the differences in information with Delaval?s "feed first principle" system and Lely?s "free cow traffic" system.The results of the qualitative interviews with the dairy farmers who bought an AMS show that there are three important factors that influence the outcome: employees, suppliers and the owner.

Föreliggande arbete utgör en delstudie i projektet Automatiserad telefonuppföljning inom Kriminalvården. Projektets övergripande syfte var att undersöka tillämpbarheten av Interactive Voice Response (IVR) som en modern metod för utvärdering, övervakning och påverkan av intagna som blivit villkorligt frigivna från ett fängelsestraff. IVR är en metodik baserat på automatiserade telefonintervjuer som bl. a innebär att en dator har programmerats för att ringa upp, ställa frågor, registrera svar och ge feedback till klienterna. I tidigare publikation från projektet undersöktes med hjälp av automatiserade telefonuppföljningar (IVR) hur stress och mående samt användande av alkohol och droger utvecklas under de trettio första dagarna efter avslutad anstaltsvistelse (Andersson et al, 2011).

Bakgrund: Patienter som vårdas inom intensivvården befinner sig ofta i en situation som präglas av snabba fysiologiska förändringar där patientens vitala funktioner kontinuerligt måste övervakas och registreras. I intensivvårdens komplexa miljö utgör dokumentationen en viktig del för att upprätthålla en hög patientsäkerhet. Syfte: Att undersöka intensivvårdssjuksköterskors uppfattning om dokumentation. Metod: En empirisk deskriptiv studie har genomförts. Fokusgruppintervjuer användes för att inhämta data.

This thesis suggest an explanation for is how it is possible to understand that the large arena project in Växjö grew to cost sums of money that initially in the project not would have been an alternative to discuss, how goals changed and how the institutional environment changed the prerequisites of the project. As empirical part of the research, to describe and analyze the project, the municipality?s documentation of the project have been analyzed and semi-structured interviews have been made. Theoretical perspective is taken from the neo-institutionalism in sociology of organizations and change, and theories of the complexity of large projects with major symbolic value and importance. The project starts with the municipality?s investment and cost to be hold back, defined as a necessary condition in order to fulfil an ambitious drive towards new sport arenas.  Eventually the necessary condition was abandoned and the arenas were built with the municipality responsible for the investment, cost and risk in the project.

When the Eolshällproject was completed for the first time, a great deal of moisturedamage was discovered. Therefore the structure completion was removed andreinstalled. The project was originally planned to cost a total of 126 million SEK, but thefinal costs landed on 271 million SEK. What caused this failure? Were the designs poor,was the technology used too advanced, or was the project not managed properly?Based on the Eolshällproject, theses will be presented about what may have caused themoisture damage.

This Master's thesis aims at pinpointing the political arguments that appear in the recent debate on scientific publication. There is a widely spread opinion that prices on digital resources are far too high, thus taking up a major part of the University libraries budget, while publishing companies make high profits. It is also a common opinion that the current publishing method does not take full advantage of the possibilities of electronic publishing. Lately a number of alternative ways of publishing have been initiated and discussed, generally referred to as open access. Open access published material is available free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions on the public internet.In this thesis the minutes from four hearings held by the UK House of Commons in the spring of 2004 are examined.

The technical evolution has a great influence on the public libraries. Electronic media becomes more and more common. This Master´s thesis is based upon the Swedish Library law 9§ (SFS 1996:1596) which says: Public- and school libraries should pay special attention to children and teenagers by offering books, information technology and other media, adapted to their needs, to encourage development of language and stimulate reading. From this point of view we have examined why the children´s departments in public libraries offer CD-ROM games which are based upon characters from the literature, how they are used in the daily activity and how they can contribute to the development of the children´s department.We have made literary studies and empirical investigations including interviews, observation studies etc. The results from this studies shows that both young and adults appreciate the CD-ROM games.

In recent centuries the Swedish Tiled Stove has varied in its design with an aesthetic evolutionary history that has not only followed the architectural and artistic ideals but also the taste in stove design. The heat source has varied depending on the regional traditions and where it was located within the country, but the inside of the construction was of a similar five channel system. The purpose of this paper is to study and compare the design of tile matrices made by Emil Petterson with other Swedish stoves. The following questions will be addressed:What characterized the production of a small scale tile stove workroom during the years 1900-50? Which main styles can be described as Emil Pettersson?s ideal while producing his matrices? And finally, is it possible to study the tile stove matrices as objects of historical and cultural significance, and what difficult methodological issues might occur in the doing of it? To answer these questions I will present the results of the documentation of Pettersson?s tile matrices with detailed historical categorizations and schedules. The conclusion shows that Pettersson as a stove builder and -producer was characterized by eclectic ideals and a design shape based on more liberal interpretations of contemporary trends.

The main purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate the new librarians' experiences and skills in the context of their present work situation and the ongoing debate about the librarian's professional identity and status. Further, the authors wanted to find out whether the new librarians' experiences and knowledge developed throughout their education correspond to the requirements of the employers. Finally, they try to assess theimpact of the "academization" of the library schools on the status of the profession. The data consist of an opinion poll. The investigation is based on questionnaires distributed as a web survey.

The information market is constantly changing. With new and improved information technology more people get access to more information faster. However, the number of people educated to handle information also increases. Business intelligence has for a long time been a well-known tool for companies to be competitive. Because of the increased access to information the competition between companies has intensified and more people have become aware of the advantages of business intelligence and how it can help them compete.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the theories and visions of five futuristic projects at children's libraries in Sweden and Denmark to investigate if these projects have approaches that are significantly different from today's best practices of the libraries and the current theories behind the children's sections.More specific questions are also asked:Are the projects taking advantage of the children's perspective or is it the adult vision of children's needs that is governing?Are the projects promoting collaborations with other actors, thereby facilitating a future development of the children's library by others than librarians?The comparisons reveal that new methods and tools are beeing developed, while the traditional ambitions and views on children and children's needs are essentially unchanged. The role of the library as a social room and meeting place has increased, while its role as a place for finding and transferring information has been challenged by Internet and home computers. The library can still compete as a public place offering relevant contents and assistance by attentive, well-educated adults.In conclusion, the futuristic projects are expected to promote greater variations between children's libraries, by presenting literature, media and information in many different and more innovative ways. Such greater diversity and multiplicity would allow the libraries to market themselves with a clearer message in order to compete with other (commercial) activities for children..

The aim of this study is to explore if and how library managers market their competence in communication with local politicians. It is also our aim to find a definition of the competence of librarians. The report identifies and describes problems and possibilitieswith marketing of competence to politicians on the basis of one Swedish municipality's library managers. In order to fulfil this aim we have used a literature study on marketing, competence, the political process and the librarian profession. We have alsocarried out an empirical study where we interviewed ten library managers in onemunicipality, seven politicians in the same municipality and ten representatives for central professional organisations mainly in Sweden.The results are that most library managers don't market their competence because they don?t believe in marketing competence.