The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how public library users consider the knowledge of the librarians and to examine what the users expect from the librarians. To begin with, we contemplate our own view of the librarians, their knowledge and what help we expect at the library. Realising that we do not expect particularly much from librarians, although we have studied to become librarians for two years, we assume that the regular library user does not expect much either. This assumption resulted in our decision to investigate this particular question.

This master thesis examines online reading groups with swedish participants. The aim is, by way of introduction, to investigate what kind of online reading groups that exist and how they work. The overall question of the thesis is: how do a conversation about books on the Internet look like? The theory used is Grounded Theory and this is a methodology which has influenced the hole structure of the study. Grounded Theory apply that issues and hypothesis must be created from the collected material, and the author collected for this reason material in the form of survey answers, email-conversations, blogmaterial and articles to draw up exact issues based on this material.The material was sorted into four different categories; social reading, reading fellowship, virtual freedom and anonymity and the issues were formulated according to this categories.

The main objective of this essay is to present the views of nine Swedish publishers and four other agents in the literary field regarding the possibilities of and obstacles to publishing fiction in an electronic format. Furthermore, whether or not electronic publishing is today actually a viable alternative. A substantial part of the essay functions as background to our interview findings and is based primarily on material originating from the Sociology of Literature field. The introductory chapter expounds the methodological and theoretical basis of the essay and is followed by a chapter placing our study in a larger, international media, context. Chapter three deals with the past decades? restructuring of the publishing sector, the professional functions involved in traditional publishing and Pierre Bourdieu?s theories on the cultural and economic forces at work in the literary field.

This qualitative study is based upon interviews with librarians. It investigates the librarians? opinions on material adapted for disabled people and examines strategies used to market user friendly services for the disabled. The study explores librarians? views about streaming directly on the internet.

The aim of this study was to examine how children in ages 3 to 4 use the public library with the research questions: What does children?s, in ages between 3 and 4, information behavior look like when they visit a public library in leisure time with a parent? What is the nature of interaction between child and parent, child and the staff of the library, and between child and other visitors? What is the function of the cultural tools in relation to the children?s information behavior? The theoretical frame of reference consisted of Lev Vygotsky?s ?the zone of proximal development? and Roger Säljö?s theory about using cultural tools. To answer the questions I have observed 4 children together with their mothers and siblings at a public library. From the result of the observations I found that every child had their own information behavior. Two of the children only used one kind of cultural tool ? books.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the information use among Swedish backpackers, both prior to departure and while travelling. The questions posed in this study are; which artefacts did the backpackers use, in what way were those used as tools of mediation within their social practice and how does a presumptive interaction between backpackers and information sources appear? The empirical material consists of interviews, held with eight backpackers, concerning their information use. The interviews reveal that a number of information sources are being consulted. The most commonly used sources identified in the empirical material are guide books, advice from other backpackers, fiction, TV programmes and periodicals.

The aim for my thesis has been to investigate how literature, or fiction, is used in management education. What books are used ? is there a literary leadership canon? What do the educators and the writers on this subject suggest that these books can teach the leaders? What are the philosophical foundations of this education? And ? last but not least ? does what the educators and writers offer respond to the needs of the businesses? My investigation shows that there is a canon in the area of management and fiction, where realistic 19th century novels, alongside with Shakespeare?s plays are dominant. Female writers and non-western writers are very underrepresented. The positive outcomes of reading and discussing these literary works that the educators and writers suggest do substantially correspond with the needs of the businesses, as presented by my sources.

This is an explorative study about subject indexing of a special collection of books, administered by the John Andrén Foundation at the library of Ystad. The study summarises a number of theoretical perspectives as well as some practical instructions on how to carry out the task. Theories have been placed into five different groups according to their various approaches to subject indexing. These have been analysed in regard to their usefulness to the Andrén collection. The authors have tested and evaluated six practical models on a selection of books from the Andrén collection.

In recent years there has been an upsurge in products and activities designed for infants, what is known as baby culture. The essay is a discourse analysis covering the part of baby culture which is concerned with infants and books. The essay studies texts from libraries and children?s bookclubs in order to understand what it is they communicate, to whom and the conceivable consequences of the communicated message. One of the main purposes of the study is to determine what view of infants as social and cultural beings it  is that arises from the texts.

Information technology (IT) with its enormous capacity involves more and more in our daily activities and public sector is using IT to make their activities more efficient. The government goal with electronic government (e-government) among other things is increasing the availability and service to the public as well as improving the democratic process. Democracy can be strengthened by involving citizens in public decision making process but this goal has not been achieved yet and the development of e-government has mostly been focused on improving efficiency within administration and electronic services (e-services). Promoting the democratic process has been postponed in the development of e-government because of the lack of political commitment and decision. Digital divide is also preventing public sector to promote democracy with the support of IT.

Textbooks are a very influential medium considering the fact that they often introduce students to information they have never read or heard about before, and as such they become very important in forming students? opinions on different matters. In this study I have taken a closer look at five textbooks in history that are currently being used in the Swedish upper secondary school. My aim has been to find out how East Asia is pictured and also how much space East Asian history is given in these textbooks with the postcolonial theory as theoretical basis. My study shows that East Asia is given very little space compared to Europe in these books, with an average of less than a twentieth of the number of pages that deal with European history.

The RoHS Directive was introduced in order to restrict hazardous substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, EEE. It currently restricts the use of six hazardous substances/compounds; cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB, and PBDE. The RoHS Directive currently includes category 1-7 and 10 in the categories of EEE listed in Annex 1A to the WEEE-Directive (Waste of EEE). The aim with the report is to investigate and elucidate prospects and obstacles to increase the scope of RoHS. This report mainly considers the inclusion of product categories 8 (Medical Devices) and 9 (Monitoring and Control Instruments).

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine the picture book canonization process in pre-schools. To succeed in this I have examined what pre-school staff believe to be the criteria of a good picture book. Together with an observation of the pre-schools current collection, other factors which can influence the collection of the picture book are included. This constitutes the foundation for a description of the pre-school picture book canon. To pursue this goal, I have used the methodology of focus group interviews with staff from two pre-schools in a middle-sized town.

 AbstractMy curiosity of students' use of images for reading led me to seek knowledge of the students view on the text illustrations in the literature and through interviews. This study is about how pupils in the school year 2 experience reading, especially with images. The purpose is to investigate the significance of illustrations in reading for students in school year 2. I also want to find out how students see themselves as readers and how the survey material believes that the students comprehend reading. Eight children, both girls and boys have participated in the interview.

The purpose of this study is to the increase knowledge and understanding of the meeting between children with Arabian as native language and a Swedish school library. The study is made as a qualitative investigation built on interviews with eight-year-olds and eleven-year-olds. Only the childrens needs and views are considered. The study is centred on twelve key issues and aims to document the childrens thoughts and views of reading as well as their reading habits and their use of the school library. Through the childrens own words their evaluation of reading and literature, their abilities to assimilate the text and their de facto use of the books can be known.