The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the role of librarian in order to illustrate how the librarians work, how their competence and education have changed and developed during the last decade, and ultimately to see what the role of librarian looks like in the 21^st century. After describing the librarians work, competence and education in the 21^st century, we discuss whether or not the changes that have arisen during the last decennium have affected the possibilities for librarianship to develop into an accepted profession. The method of investigation is a qualitative analysis of printed sources. As a basis of the discussion and analysis Andrew Abbotts theory of professions is used. We also use Per Tengblads analysis model, which includes six important steps in analysing the professionalism of an occupation.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyzes how the bookmobile librarians approach to purchase and selection and the range of views that may exist. The study is based on a qualitative method using a document study and three interviews included. The document study looking closely at public libraries library plans in Vastra Gotalands county. The qualitative interviews gets a closer look at librarians´approach regarding the purchase and selection and also if there are any similarities or differences between mobile library activities versus the main library.The theoretical framework is based on Sanna Taljas study where she has identified three different perspectives on the library´s music department. These are categorized as the interpretative repertoires and involves three categories of approach to quality.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how librarians are workingwith the selection and purchase of feature films in Swedish publiclibraries. I was interested in examining the underlying reasonsbehind the selections. I chose to focus on how librarians areworking and reason about the library´s film collection.The purpose of my study is to answer the following questions:? How are librarians working with selection and purchase offeature films in the public library?? What factors motivate librarians´ selection of featurefilms?? What do librarians reason about the public library filmcollection?To answer these questions I performed interviews with sevenlibrarians in five different public libraries. The results of theinterviews have been analyzed on the basis of the theories andtheoretical model of Sanna Talja.

The story of the forest - A folded textile wall for flexible rooms in public spacesIn the story of the forest the dragonfly is spinning yarn shiny as the sun. In the story of the forest almost everything can happen and almost everything is also happen there.Inspiration from Lennart HellsingThe goal in this exam work was to create a calm, playful space for children in public spaces. A place where children can hide and relax without being disrupted by the surrounding, a place where their imagination can grow and take place. The goal was also to make a flexible space for public spaces that could be used in different ways. Today many libraries want to be more than a library, they will work as a meeting place and you can find several activities to join in.

This study aims mainly to investigate what kind of role the public library plays in the regional and local development. The aim is also to investigate how the public library can strengthen the role as a factor of regional and local development. To explore the subject, the study is focused on the Swedish region of Västra Götaland. Three officials along with two policy documents, are included in the study as representatives of the region. Four public library managers are also interviewed but as representatives of the local perspective.

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.

The view on which kind of fiction that should be mediated to the public through the Swedish public library system has since the late 60´s been dominated by what in this Master?s thesis is called: ´the discourse on quality of literary fiction´. The aim of this thesis is to examine to which extent this discourse still plays an active role in the Swedish public library system or if that discourse has been replaced by a more market-led, demand responsive view, where the features of ´quality´ and ´culture´ have been downplayed and replaced by a ´customer?s service view´ on how and why fiction should be mediated to the public. The methodological and theoretical perspective in this thesis is led by the understanding of the discourse analysis in Michel Foucault?s ´The Archaeology of Knowledge´.

The aim of this study has been to create a future scenario of what archiving might look like in the future. The main theory used in the study comes from future studies, but also a theory about the social impact of technology on work were used. The questions that were analysed were about the tasks of the archivist, the appearance of the archival institution, collaboration with other LAM institutions, knowledge requirements for the archivist and the amount of archivist positions. The method used in the study was scenario writing, which derives from future studies. The source material consisted among other things of regulations and laws related to archiving together with some archival manuals.The tasks of the future archivist will probably consist of the same tasks as those of present archivists who work with digital archiving, even though archivists probably forever also will have to work a little with paper records.The future archival institution will probably retain its paper records and keep its digital records on digital storage media.

Although school librarians have an important role to play in high schools helping teachers and students during their education, Swedish school librarians are often considered to end up left out by teachers and head principals due to school librarians vague and unclear professional role in the school. The aim of this thesis is to attempt to study school librarians own apprehensions of their particular professional role in a high school context, and how their professional role is believed to be apprehended by teachers and head principals. The results are based on interviews made with eight school librarians working in different high school libraries in Gothenburg during April 2002. By using phenomenographic method various existing apprehensions of the specific phenomena that the professional role of the school librarian constitutes of are made clear. The aim of the method is not to study what the profession constitutes of, but rather how it is apprehended by the school librarians themselves.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the underlying causes for the opening of Karlstad Public Library. In doing so a theory based on the actor/structure model within social theory is used. The structures and actors are intertwined and therefore need to be analysed together. To do so the theory poses a series of questions that needs to be answered. The method used is document analysis.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine how librarians/cultural workers act in projects in order to stimulate and promote reading among children and youth in sparsely populated regions in the county of Jämtland during a period of three years, and if/how these projects differ. The examination is based upon the progress of these projects in four of eight communities. Four librarians and two cultural workers have been interviewed in order to get their view of the proceedings of the projects. The results indicate that the four communities all made up plans for three years but in different ways. They mainly collaborated with the school but also with the board of children's health and the preparatory school.

This master?s thesis deals with the development of the Swedish library catalogue. The thesis primarily has two purposes. Firstly, it describes how the Swedish library catalogue has developed from its first appearance until today. As the Swedish library sector is very extensive the authors have chosen a few catalogues which they have studied more thoroughly.

The aim of this study is to gain knowledge about the internalcommunication at a public library in Sweden, focusing on the flow of information and the library employee?s role as a source and receiver. This is an important subject because internal communication affects not only the internal work, but also the users. Despite this there are few studies about internal communication in libraries. The research questions used are: How do the employees perceive the role as source of information, and what choices do they make before they spread information? How do the employees perceive the role as receiver of information? How do the employees feel that the information flow works in the organization as a whole?The research is founded on five qualitative semi-structured interviews with the library employees.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the benefit of information literacy instruction in two student groups at Kristianstad University, in relation to development of critical information literacy and within the boundaries of the educational goals. This study takes on a critical information literacy perspective that combines critical pedagogy and standards for information literacy in higher education. Two methods have been used for data collection: interviews and questionnaires. According to the results of the study the information literacy instruction provided by the Kristianstad University Library is important and useful for the students in their academic studies. It also becomes clear that the information literacy differs between the two groups as a consequence of the varying information literacy instruction received by the two groups.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study how public librarians? view mediation of fiction: the knowledge needed, the thoughts expressed about their own and other adults reading of fiction and how the informants define their roles as mediators of fiction. The method used was qualitative interviews with six librarians at main libraries in Swedish cities of different sizes. The theoretical starting points are Louise M. Rosenblatt?s reader-response theory, Michail Bachtin?s theory of speech genres and Åse Tveit?s and Jofrid Karner Smidt?s theories about mediation of fiction.