This master deals with the theme youth and public libraries. The essay is based on observationsand qualitative interviews with young people at the ages of 13 to 16 years old, whovisited the public library of Skara, employees at the library, and politicians in the community.The main issue in the study is; what is and what can be done to increase youth utilization ofpublic libraries. I have emphasized on the media stock, the organization of books, theenvironment and the staff of the library, marketing, specific target group, activities, andcooperation with both internal and external forces.Theories about youth culture and some projects concerning young peoples behaviour in librariesare also presented..

This essay takes its point of departure in the need for modern day public libraries to legitimize their place in today?s society. Societal changes call for constant reinvention of libraries and as part of this reinvention, new light is being shed on the public library?s role as a meeting place. By investigating contemporary debate articles published in Bibliotek i samhälle and Biblioteksbladet, two major Swedish library magazines, this essay aims to categorize and compare different conceptions of the library?s function as a meeting place.

The main purpose of this thesis has been to investigate librarians opinions about the need for and possibility to use non-roman script in library catalogues. We have also investigated the routines of handling materials in non-roman scripts in two Swedish libraries. The investigation was made in the light of the recent shift in character set in the Swedish National Library Catalogue Libris. This change will enable use of multiple writing systems in the future.Our findings are that a multicultural society requires special consideration to the needs of citizens who speak other languages than the majority of the population. This becomes difficult when the languages spoken have a different writing system than the one used by the majority.

This study examines the closure of public libraries, and the nonprofit organizations takeover of them as a phenomenon. The aim is to understand why the nonprofit takeover is common and what the takeover symbolizes and if the discourse in media invokes the views on libraries and the profession.Interviews were made with librarians, politicians and representatives of a nonprofit organization to study different sides of the phenomenon. Other empirical data were found in local and national newspapers and media-channels. I discovered that public libraries are highly valued by both politicians and the community. The study also showed that a library in a community makes people feel valued.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine different factors that may influence the librarian in the selection of popular music. The study is conducted through a qualitative method, influenced by grounded theory. The results are based on patterns drawn from both interviews with six libraries and from literature. The literature review concerns foremost cultural politics, music aesthetics, the sphere of popular music in Sweden today and the impact of commercialism. Also the purposes of popular music in a library, aspects of values of popular music and assortment policies are being discussed.

This bachelor thesis explores the library collaboration "HelGe-libraries" goals, guidelines and strategies for their resource sharing of library books and digital resources. The questions asked were: What does the resource sharing look like when it comes to media and services? What goals and guidelines do they have for the resource sharing? What common strategies do they have for the resource sharing? What challenges have they encountered with resource sharing and how have they dealt with them?The theoretical framework consists of Jennifer Rowleys theory of innovation strategies for libraries and Rosabeth Moss Kanters theory on the art of alliances. The method used to collect material was interviews and document analysis. Four informants were interviewed.My study concludes that the "HelGe-libraries" has formulated goals for their resource sharing and that the resource sharing is connected to their goals.

Verksamheter inom den offentliga sektorn påverkar miljön mestadels genom till exempel beslut, information och handlingar utefter dessa. Deras påverkan är därmed svårare att se, den är indirekt. Några som har en intressant form av indirekt miljöpåverkan är utbildningsanstalter. De kommer i kontakt med mycket människor och har därmed en stor indirekt påverkan och denna påverkan kan bli både positiv och negativ beroende på organisationens engagemang och kunskap om sin miljöpåverkan. Ett väl fungerande miljöledningssystem som tar in all miljöpåverkan skulle kunna hjälpa skolor att göra sin indirekta miljöpåverkan positiv.

This paper is a research review in the realm of censorship systems andfiltering systems. It applies ethical considerations to the creation of censorshipsystems bringing forward discussion on the ethics of technology with thepurpose of limiting access to information.There is active research being done in the area of automatic content filteringand censorship systems. These are systems that can filter out undesiredmaterial, typically from the Internet, automatically. Used in some nations,many schools and even mandated in some libraries there are many ethicalquestions raised concerning censorship and access to information.Part of the review concerns the level of accuracy of these systems presentedby researchers in the field and the different approaches used. Reviewedarticles centre around automatic content classification and filtering ofpotentially harmful materials with regards to minors while some relate tocensorship technology in a wider sense.Results show a general lack of discussion concerning the ethics of thetechnology in the research reviewed.

This bachelor´s thesis wants to look closer at librarians´ experiences of comics, manga and graphic novels. In order to bring these experiences forward qualitative interviews and the method of phenomenography was used. The material was then examend againstna theory of previous research, revealing that the problems librarians in Sweden face with these media are largely the same as the problems faced by librarians in other parts of the world. It also became clear that the participating librarians held a positive attitude to the presence of comics, manga and graphic novles in their libraries..

Syftet med examensarbetet var att beskriva hur studie- och yrkesvägledare arbetar på högskola/universitet och hur studie- och yrkesvägledarna förhåller sig till de nya förutsättningarna. De nya förutsättningarna kan vara arbetslöshet, ett högre tryck, studenters behov och att övergången från skola till arbete blir längre. Som en inledning valde vi att förklara hur studie- och yrkesvägledare arbetar på dessa instanser. Därefter ville se om de nya förutsättningarna hade påverkat studie- och yrkesvägledarnas arbetssätt på den lokala och den centrala vägledningen. Avslutningsvis ville vi ta reda på hur studie- och yrkesvägledarna uppfyller studenternas behov av vägledning.

In July 2011, new regulations regarding school libraries came into effect through a new education act for Swedish schools. The wording of the Act has been the basis of much discussion in which the concepts of "school library" and "access" makes it difficult to build consensus among different parties, why this can cause difficulties in ultimately construct equal access to school library. The purpose of this survey is to examine the interpretations and practices that exist around the school library and its functions among primary school principals. The principals have been selected on the basis that they themselves (the schools) already indicated that they do not have access to their own school library within the school premises. As a theoretical starting point, I used the school library researcher David Loertscher?s taxonomy for school leaders.

Traditionally, the majority of Swedish public libraries have carried out most of their acquisitions through Bibliotekstjänst's binding booklets. In recent years, however, many libraries have complemented the binding booklets and other services from Bibliotekstjänst by other ways of acquiring books, such as Internet bookshops, while other libraries have stopped using the binding booklets altogether. There are various reasons for this development, such as Information Technology making it possible for librarians to compare prizes and services from different retailers. Another important reason is the need for public libraries to meet new needs from their patrons, while remaining on a restrained budget, which often causes a need for reorganization of staff and resources.As a way of meeting the new needs for libraries, Bibliotekstjänst has created Profile Services (profiltjänster), a service in which a library outsources its acquisitions to Bibliotekstjänst. The staff of the library, in dialogue with Bibliotekstjänst, design a profile for the acquisitions for the library in question, in order to determinate which types and genres of literature the library and its patrons are requesting.

This master's thesis aims to study the relationship between two publiclibraries and Berättarministeriet, a foundation that offers free writingworkshops for children in areas with high levels of unemployment. Theworkshops are located in spaces that formerly belonged to the libraries.Questions posed in this thesis are How can the relationship between thelibraries and Berättarministeriet be described?, Why did the relationship turnout differently in the two places? and How does the library see itself, inrelation to Berättarministeriet?The theories used are Ögland's taxonomy for relationships between librariesand local organizations, and Folkesson's theory on interaction betweendifferent professional groups, and this was studied through interviews. Theresults showed a relationship without much interaction, beyond a "handover"of children from one place to the other, with time and shortness of staff beingcontributing factors to the low level of collaboration. Regarding the differentrelationships in the two places the results were not conclusive, butnevertheless showed tendancies of issues in the legitimacy dimension, fromthe library towards Berättarministeriet.

The subject of this master thesis is co-operation between archives, libraries and museums. The purpose is twofold: 1 To map out activities within the area to get an overall picture. The mapping is done by studies of documents and consists of international outlooks and an overview of national and regional projects and reports; 2 To investigate how leaders of the respective institutions within the various regions of Sweden apprehend co-operation between the three sectors. The empirical study is accomplished by inquiries and is mainly qualitative. An intermediate purpose of this essay is to try using grounded theory to treat and analyse the gathered material.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine and present the programmes and activities of school library centres in order to see what functions (purposes) they can fulfil in a municipality and also if and how they can contribute to school library development. In order to fulfil my purpose I have made qualitative interviews with five librarians from school library centres. The theoretical framework is primarily based on David Loertscher?s.