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.

Det finns riktlinjer för hur webbplatser kan anpassas för personer med kognitiva funktionhinder, men ännu har ingen enighet uppnåtts när det gäller hur man bäst går tillväga för att skapa tillgängliga webbplatser för målgruppen. Det finns flera former av kognitiva funktionshinder. Därför behövs undersökningar som fokuserar på hur man skapar tillgängliga webbplatser för personer med de olika formerna av funktionshindret. En fallstudie har därför utförts genom detta arbete, för att ta reda på hur tillgänglig Kristianstad Biblioteks webbplats är för unga personer med lindrig utvecklingsstörning. Webbplatsen har studerats genom ett användningstest som utförts tillsammans med målgruppen.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate what chief librarians in Sweden know about the present education in Library and Information Science and what opinions they have of it. We have used the following four questions as a starting point for our work: + How much do the chief librarians know about the education in Library and Information Science? + What are their opinions of the education? + What emphasis do they put on academic degrees and practical experience? + Are there any differences between various kinds of libraries regarding these issues? We decided to use questionnaires to gather our information. These were sent to 200 chief librarians on both public and research libraries all over Sweden. 151 of the questionnaires were answered.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine what knowledge and competence employers at public libraries apprehend that recent graduates of library and information science (LIS) have. We want to illuminate what qualifications employers demand and expect from LIS graduates and to what degree employers find that LIS graduates correspond to these demands. Our aim is also to see how these qualifications can be categorized and understood. Finally, we try to picture the employers? apprehensions of the education received at LIS.As a method of gathering material for the analysis, we sent qualitative inquires with open questions to employers at public libraries in Sweden.

Usability studies are not a central field of research in library and information science. Although literature in library and information science treats the importance of usable user interfaces quite extensively, the literature does not significantly treat potential problems in measuring usability. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate, through a critical analysis, the methods used when conducting usability studies in library and information science. The critical analysis is based on potential problems in measuring usability identified through a literature review from the field of studies Human-Computer Interaction, the concept of usabilitys original domain. The material which is to be analysed, is chosen from one library and information science journal Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how the transfer from academic studies into professional life is experienced in retrospect by professional librarians. The aim is also to examine in which context the studies in library- and information science in Sweden has been formed. To attain the purpose of the thesis four main questions is being asked: In which context has LIS-studies from the period 1993-2007 been formed? Which competence does the professional librarian consider to be the most fundamental in professional life? Does the professional librarian experience that the knowledge attained from LIS-studies is sufficient for the actual tasks? Which are the differences between tasks at different types of libraries? The study is performed through a questionnaire survey in which 94 professional librarians express their experiences of their LIS-studies in retrospect.

Library and information science (LIS), being a research area characterized by theoretical discord and definition disarray, provides an interesting field of inquiry. Its content, boundaries, scope and superior identity are not clearly stated. This Master s thesis focuses on a thus far unexplored perspective on the discipline: a conceivable statistic and causes- and- effect relationship between the LIS students appreciated identification with the superior identity of the discipline, and the chosen vocational direction within the field. This relationship is examined through testing a working hypothesis on the results of a major quantitative questionnaire survey. The theory behind our research derives mainly from Thomas Kuhn and Richard Whitley.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how children search for and choose picture books while visiting the library together in a preschool group. How do children interact with each other and their teacher while searching for picture books? Which aspects of children's everyday lives are apparent in their choice of picture books? The theoretical frame of reference consists of Brenda Dervin's sense-making approach to information seeking and William Corsaro's sociological approach to studying children's routine activities within a peer culture. To capture children's interaction, we have observed a preschool group consisting of six 3- to 5-year olds and their teacher in a library setting during three visits. Our study shows that children's search for picture books is a social activity that involves various verbal and nonverbal strategies in order to include and exclude each other when they find a picture book that interests them.

Inför höstterminen 2007 förändrades grundutbildningen i biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap vid Umeå universitet, men någon alumnuppföljning har aldrig gjorts. I denna kandidatuppsats utvärderas utfallet av lärosätets nya kandidat- och magisterprogram utifrån alumnernas etablering på arbetsmarknaden samt värdering av utbildningarnas färdighetstränande inslag och relevans i arbetslivet. Studien genomfördes nov-dec 2013 i form av en brevenkät, vars svarsfrekvens uppgick till 71 procent (n=77). Cirka åtta av tio respondenter har haft ett utbildningsrelevant arbete sedan studietiden. De flesta alumner bor kvar på utbildningsorten, vilket enligt dem orsakar hög konkurrens på den regionala arbetsmarknaden.

The aim with this study was to examine which information sources are used by the librarians in the process of changing automated library system and why. Furthermore it was of interest to examine whether there are any correlations between variables environment, information quality, information availability, information need and information sources. I used a quantitative method that was carried out in form of a nationwide survey. Questionnaires were sent out to all the Swedish libraries that had change library systems sometime between the years 2000.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the user discourses that can be identified in the public library field. Questions posed in this study are: what discourses can be found, what characterises them, how are users categorised and what does this categorisation imply. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic. 62 articles from three library journals - Biblioteksbladet, Bibliotek i Samhälle and Ikoner are analysed through a model in four phases.

The purpose of the essay has been to examine representations of immigrants in contemporary library and information science research in a Scandinavian context. By analyzing nine articles from the past decade we examine the perceptions that exist in the concepts of multiculturalism, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, gender and whiteness and what role and importance the library as a place is assigned in relation to immigrants as a user group. Our study consists of a qualitative text analysis, a critical oriented close reading method based on critical race and whiteness studies and intersectional theory. We have, with the help of Sara Ahmed´s theories of hegemonic whiteness, demonstrated how multiculturalism is partly presented as something desirable and good, partly as something potentially threatening.The discourse of multiculturalism can be said to express the notions of the other, which in the source material manifests itself by ascribing otherness to immigrants. We have, for example, examined how ethnical and cultural differences are highlighted by a separation of East and West, the library?s educational and assisting role in relation to immigrants as a user group as well as representations of whiteness, gender and clothes.

This is a qualitative interview study of the importance of the non-verbal communication related to the reference situation at public libraries. The experiences of both librarians and users of the reference service have been explored with regards to non-verbal communication. Eight interviews have been carried out. The results reveal that the users and librarians consider that it is important that the librarian find eye contact as well as give affirmation through nodding and smiling. To demonstrate interest and involvement in the questions through attentive listening is also of great value.

The empirical data used for this master thesis, consists of eight manuals with the main purpose to help students evaluate information resources found on the web or Internet. The purpose is to elucidate the discourses and investigate those textual characteristics, which figure in the investigated manuals. The method used is a discursive and linguistic approach, with a power/knowledge discussion applied to the results. The analysis identifies, among other things, the production and consumption of the investigated texts, and that the manuals function as a reflection of the relationship between the participants in the situation, the sociocultural practice of the institution and its identity..

Min undersökning handlar om hur pedagoger i förskolan arbetar med barn för att underlätta framtida läsförståelse, samt vilka resurser förskolan har för det. Jag använde mig av semistrukturerade intervjuer i min undersökning.Undersökningen visar på flera likheter och skillnader mellan metoder att lära barnen läsa och skriva som används vid de studerade förskoleavdelningarna, strävan att ge barnen en god läs- och skrivförståelse kommer till uttryck från samtliga pedagoger.