In February 2002 the European commission put forward a proposal for a new directive on The patentability of computer-implemented inventions, but which during my work on this essay has not been decided on yet. The directive has divided the decision-makers in the union, the commission and parliament, into two different positions regarding by which range computer-implemented inventions should be patentable. The parliament has amended the commissions proposal in a substantial way and the legal process has caused a heated debate both within the unions administration and among various interest groups both in favour of and against a patent on computer-implemented inventions. The loudest protests have come from a group that feels threatened by a possible software patent: Open Source. In this study I examine both the arguments by the decision-makers and by the lobbying for and against the proposal.

The aim of this essay has been to study six female seniors use and view of the library and its roles. The two Danish scientists Jochumsen and Rasmussen talk about the library in terms of a social center, cultural center, knowledge center and information center. Depending on what lifestyle the seniors belong to in the social room, they use the library differently. The social room consists of four lifestyles, north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east. The things that are important to consider in order to be able to place each senior within the different lifestyles are education level, economic standard, interests and so forth.

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

The aim of this essay is to examine different discourses concerning adolescents and library youth services that can be identified in the material. 73 articles from the Swedish library journal, Biblioteksbladet, were analysed trough a model. The different articles were all published between 1916 and 2005. The analysis revealed a result that consists of four discourses about adolescents and youth services at different libraries between 1916 and 2005: the library as fostering discourse, a new era discourse, the visiting activities discourse and the young adult discourse. The library as fostering discourse is based on the idea that the library itself doesnt need to change the service to adolescents, instead the adolescents are supposed to change into good library users.

The role of cultural policy within the general political planning of a community can vary both historically and regionally. The aim of this study has been to explore the cultural policy plans, during the 1990's, in the recently formed geographical region of "Västra Götaland". This is a qualitative study, carried out during 1999, and based upon structured interviews with five representatives of the cultural-policy sector in the "Västra Götaland" region. In order to identify connections and tendencies in a more general social context the aims of the five representatives regarding cultural policy have been explored from the perspective of three cultural policy paradigms, namely Dorte Skot-Hansen, Olav R. Spilling and Göran Nylöf.

The main thing we wanted to find out with this thesis was, can reading aloud help the natural language development. We also wanted to know how libraries in Sweden work with reading aloud and if children with reading and writing problems are being helped by being read to. We also wanted to find out what authoritarians on literature think a good reading-aloud novel should contain. To find this out we decided to do a literature study, we have taken part of a number of authoritarian opinions on this matter and we also studied some theories on this subject. We also decided to do a couple of interviews to exemplify how regular libraries work with reading aloud.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the user service discourses in the field of public libraries that can be identified in four Swedish library journals. Also which underlying causes that control the discourses and the consequences of them are examined. Questions in this study are: which discourses can be found, what characterises them, what kind of different discourses concerning technology in society control the user service discourses and what are the consequences of them. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate hospital librarians understanding of their professional role in working with children. Two different aspects of the professional role were focused on; professional knowledge and ethics. The following research questions were posed: - How do hospital librarians experience their professional role in working with children and young people? - What is regarded as professional knowledge content for hospital librarians in working with children and young people? - How do hospital librarians view ethical aspects in working with children and young people? The issues have been addressed through qualitative interviews with seven hospital librarians. We have used phenomenography which is both a set of theoretical assumptions and a methodology.

This thesis should be regarded as an integrated research synthesis. The purpose has been to analyse how the literary sociologist Lars Furulands model the literary process correlates in relation to todays book market for fiction. The central problem has been: In what different ways can some of the main actors featuring in Furulands model of the literary process use, produce or provide copyright protected works of fiction which are electronically distributed? Three questions have been considered to penetrate this problem: In what different ways can to judge from some projects which have been carried through at common public libraries electronic works of fiction be provided to their presumed readers? What reasons could there be as it appears in a number of texts that four Swedish authors have chosen to disseminate their works of fiction by the aid of the Internet? Which main functions may, according to current research, be supported by electronic media in connection with editing and retail of fiction? During this study a picture of two quite disconnected processes of publication has materialized. These processes seem to proceed parallelly to each other, without any close contact, in a traditional respectively an electronic circuit.

Huvudsyftet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka cementstabiliserad granulerad flygaska och dess tekniska egenskaper för att kunna ge förslag till olika användningsområden. Examensarbetet har utförts genom litteraturstudier, laboratorieförsök och datasimuleringar. Dessa simuleringar gjordes främst av en vägkropps beteende där cementstabiliserad granulerad flygaska ingick som ett byggnadsmaterial. Arbetet har avgränsats till att undersöka möjligheterna för användning i vägbyggnadssammanhang vilket innebär att de materialparametrar som undersökts har haft direkt koppling till detta användningsområde. Litteraturstudien utfördes genom att söka svensk och utländsk litteratur i ämnet via bibliotek och Internet.

Dagens lärare i idrott och hälsa har stor frihet att forma undervisningen på det sätt som de själva tycker är bäst för eleverna, eftersom vare sig läro- eller kursplan nämner något om undervisningsformen. Detta skall dock ske i samverkan med eleverna. Därför behöver man också veta vilka uppfattningar eleverna har kring undervisningsformen. Trots det finns det idag inte mycket forskning inom området. Vilka uppfattningar har elever kring undervisningsformen i idrott och hälsa, i detta fall den könsblandade och den könsuppdelade? Syftet med det här examensarbetet var att undersöka elevers uppfattningar om könsblandad och könsuppdelad i undervisning i ämnet idrott och hälsa i årskurs nio.

Today many people with disabilities are excluded from cultural activities. The reason for this is that activities and the environment are not adapted to people with disabilities. The aim of this study is to describe the process to make cultural activities accessible and to describe the importance of good communication between cultural suppliers and their customers. Other questions raised are accessibility to cultural activities for people with hearing disabilities, the activities in the marketing process, the interaction between theatre companies and its audience and if the interaction has contributed to the theatre's future development. Qualitative interviews with staff responsible for integration at seven theatres have been performed.

This study is an attempt to examine how hospital libraries should develop its activities towards their target groups in time of reductions. The method was a case study of the hospital libraries in Uddevalla and Trollhättan. An opinion poll was carried out among a selection of hospital staff, patients, medical researchers and students. In addition a patient group at some wards was observed. The libraries in the study produce an annual report, which presents a proposal for developments.

The aim of this Master?s Thesis is to examine the importance of literacy and reading in a country like Jamaica. What role do public libraries and bookmobiles play in promoting literacy, and how does this work correspond with the UNESCO public library manifesto?To answer this, interviews were conducted with nine Jamaican librarians, and study visits were made to libraries and bookmobiles. In addition, development plans, policy and other relevant documents were analyzed.

Denna studie undersöker användarvänligheten hos Bibblo.se, en bibliotekswebbsida där 47 bibliotek i Norrbotten gemensamt gått ihop och skapat en gemensam webbplats, utifrån fyra olika aspekter enligt exempelvis författarna Nielsen, Krug, Sundström m.fl: siddesign, innehållsdesign, webbdesign och interaktionsdesign. För att undersöka användarvänligheten hos Bibblo.se gjordes sex stycken användartester som följdes upp av kvalitativa intervjuer. Användartesterna gjordes med hjälp av ?tänka högt?-metoden (?think aloud?). Användartesterna och intervjuerna följdes upp av kvalitativa analyser.