The aim of this master thesis is to measure library service quality in two groups of libraries, newly developed and well established, and to see if there are any differences in the users perception of the dimensions in LibQUAL+. The thesis also examines the different perception of quality for the user groups: undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. Another approach is to test the Swedish translation of LibQUAL+. Different theories on service quality are presented but the main theories are from the marketing perspective. The grounding and development of LibQUAL+ is described as well as the use of the instrument in different libraries.

This master?s thesis looks at discourses that use the pronoun ?hen?. The media debate in Sweden over this pronoun in 2012 started in connection with the publishing of a children?s picture book: Kivi och monsterhund, by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Jansson. The essay investigates how eight librarians, who take an interest in and work with gender issues, talk about the pronoun hen and about this picture book and other books that have characters which are not named as a sex/gender.The essay takes a discursive perspective on reality and on the construction of knowledge and carries out a discourse analysis of the librarians? talk in the qualitative interviews that were made for this study.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge in biology by immigrant pupils. My investigation is based on the pupil and I have focused on positive and negative factors that affect their performance in biology.The study is based on marks in year 2006/2007, a survey and interviews made with four immigrant pupils at a compulsory school in Västra Götaland.The study indicates that the result in biology of immigrant pupils is lower compared to Swedish.Difficulties in language, the commitments by their parents and their surroundings are the main factors that affect their results negative..

The aim with this thesis is to highlight components regarding small children?s reading environment in preschool and see how these affect their meeting with literature. The study is based on J. A. Appleyard?s theory on man?s development as a reader.

The aim of the study was to examine how the public libraries participate in the integration of immigrants in the Malmö-/Lund region. Librarians and immigrants were interviewed about the services offered by the libraries in the area of multiculturalism and what kind of service that is requested by the immigrants. The interviews also included possibilities to contribute to increased knowledge among the native Swedish people about different cultures represented among immigrants in Sweden. From the qualitative analyses it is concluded that the libraries represented in the study contribute to the integration of immigrants. The respondents gave multiple examples of the libraries? usefulness in the integration process by offering immigrants possibilities to develop their knowledge in the Swedish language, and also to find information about the Swedish society and culture.

In this study my aim has been to discover what connections can be made between the way of creating a library building and the general values concerning the library activities and the library users. What kind of ideology could possibly be reflected in a library room? My study includes two different parts. First of all there is a theoretical section based upon literature relevant for the subject. Here I try to focus on the libraryÕs role in society as a public room.

Since the 1970s voting behaviour has changed. Party identification and class voting has declined. As the electorate becomes more volatile, campaign strategy and party image becomes essential. Political communication and mass media now play an important role in election campaigns. Therefore, researchers take an interest in the impact of media on public opinion.

In this thesis I investigate what librarians working with children do for six-year-olds at the libraries in order to stimulate them to read. I also investigate how children of this age read and what books are like for these beginners. The background for the thesis is that reading decreased a lot in ages three to eight during the 1980s and 1990s. My aim is to see what projects, methods and other strategies there are to get children to read. The method used is case study.

The purpose of this thesis in Library and Information Science (LIS) is to examine concepts related to multiculturalism in Sweden. It aims to look beyond the rhetorical construction of these concepts, in an attempt to clarify the actual purpose of commonly emphasizing the importance of mulicultural library services. Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) as well as theories on ethnicity and intersectionality constitute the theoretical frame. The material consists of selected anthologies, handbooks and articles in Biblioteksbladet from 1974?2014, as well as a small case study.

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera framställningar av manliga bibliotekarier i science fiction-litteratur, analysera vad dessa framställningar förmedlar för föreställningar om bibliotek och biblioteksverksamhet, samt att analysera de manliga bibliotekariernas koppling till maskuliniteter. Titlarna som analyseras är fyra romaner; Audrey Niffeneggers Tidsresenärens hustru, Dmitrij Gluchovskijs Metro 2033, Jules Vernes Paris i tjugonde seklet, och Jasper Ffordes Uppslukad ? En fängslande historia om Torsdag Nesta, samt en podcast; Welcome to Night Vale och en tv-serie; Buffy ? the vampire slayer. Resultatet av analysen är att ett flertal av de valda titlarna ger enövervägande negativ bild av biblioteket som en exkluderande samhällsinstitution samt är vidarerelaterat till de sätt på vilka bibliotekarierna i de olika titlarna konstrueras som maskulina. Tre olika kategorier framkom särskilt tydligt under analysen; bibliotekarien som monster/mutant, bibliotekarien som sexuellt avvikande, och bibliotekarien som lärdomsgigant och väktare av kunskapen.

The object of this study is to examine the effective functionality of an OPAC-system while a few participants interacted with the catalogue. I?ve used Carl Martin Allwood?s (1998) four designed usability factors to be able to estimate the effective functionality of the online catalogue. Theoretic basis is Human Computer Interaction together with Allwood?s four defined usability factors.

The aim of this thesis is to examine young adults? attitudes towards libraries marketing in social media. Libraries mainly use social media to reach out to young adults. However, young adults mainly use social media to communicate with their friends. The question that arises is if young adults are interested in communicating with organizations such as libraries on social media.

The global climate change affects the Arctic region the most. The decrease in arcticsea ice is one of the reasons why, it accelerates the warm-up of the region.To understand the changes in the Arctic climate, knowledge about what affects thechanges in the sea ice is necessary. One of these processes could be the relationbetween the extent of the sea ice and the concentration of sea salt aerosols in thearea.This work studies how a variation in the arctic sea ice extent affects theconcentration of sea salt aerosols at Barrow, Alaska. To do this aerosoldata, icedataand winddata has been analyzed over the years 1998-2007. The results shows that aseasonally variation in the sea ice extent affects large aerosols (1-10 ?m) whilesmaller aerosols (<1 ?m) doesn?t seem to be affected as much..

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes towards the labour movement?s strategies, goals and organisational issues in Swedish Miners? Union?s (Gruvindustriarbetareförbundet, hereafter Gruv) paper, Gruvarbetaren 1917-1925.The theoretical starting point is Engels? view on the class state. This perspective turns the question of socialism and the way to get there into an issue of working class power over the state. Another theoretical perspective is the partition of the labour movement into a trade-unionistic branch, seeing unions as financial organisations of interest, and a pro-state one, considering unions as political organisations.During the period investigated Gruvarbetaren was quite radical and advocated a firm class struggle strategy towards employers. Since these were considered unreliable, class struggle was seen as the only way to better the conditions for the working class.

Background: 2009 it has occurred a crisis in some of the member states of the European Union: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece. Despite, some major banks in the world had begun to recover from the financial crisis that occurred from 2007 until 2009, there were still banks who found it difficult to survive. Greece is one of the countries that suffered from the financial crisis. The high budget deficit and the unsustainable debt are underlying the crisis.Banks as financial intermediaries have important function in a nation?s economy.