The aim of this essay is to examine fan culture?s role in Swedish public libraries. I have interviewed, via email, six librarians who encounter and use fan culture in their daily work. The theoretical elements of my essay are based on a modified set of theories by Dorte Skot-Hansen that identifies six ideal types of cultural political rationalities. My study reveals that fan culture is used in Swedish libraries as a tool in increasing user participation in library activities.

The aim of this study is to investigate the meaning of the librarycafé for its visitors as a place. By this study we want to see howimportant the library café is as a place. Our theoretical departurepoint is an adaption of the space and place-theory, by Fisher,Saxton, Edwards & Mai. By adapting the theory to a libraryperspective it helps us to understand how library users look uponthe library café as place.Using a qualitative approach the empirical material has beencollected through observations and interviews. We observed andcarried out interviews with six library café visitors at threedifferent library cafés.Our findings are that the library café is used in many differentways and by many different peoples.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether or not the publiclibraries under review can make use of Frans Melin?s strategicbranding platform to create or strengthen their brands by meansof their programme activities. The study addresses two issues;how are the programme activities relevant to the way librariescan work with their brands, and what potential do these librarieshave to create and/or reinforce their brands through programmeactivities?The empirical material has been obtained through qualitativeinterviews structured around Melin?s platform. This has alsobeen used to discuss and analyse the results.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis is to describe and analyze the implementation of Facebook in a public library. A case study consisting of qualitative interviews and studies of documents containing goals for the library has been conducted at a public library going through the process of implementing Facebook in their operations. The theoretical framework for this study consists of Everett M. Rogers?s stages of the innovation-decision process and his characteristics of innovations as perceived by individuals.

This essay points at the importance of public libraries as arenas of meetings between refugees and the local population, and by this - creating social kapital in the society as a whole. The researchers Aabø, Audunson and Vårheim have created theories about low-intensive meeting places, that means ? neutral, public places where accidential meetings with different strangers can happen, which can create social capital and trust among each other. To complement these theories I also use Vårheim who have implementet social capital-theories to the sphere of public libraries. These two theories complement each other and can help me investigate two public libraries in a rural area in Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis was to figure out the feelings that librarians felt towards the e-books at the library. And if it affects their work at the library, especially from a financial point of view. The reason I decided to do this study is because the subject of e-books has become bigger in the last couple of years, and that I got the feeling that the librarians didn?t like them that much. So I did six interviews with six different librarians from different libraries to see if they felt the same thing or if they are in fact positive towards them.The results I received from my study were that the librarians are positive to the e-book.

This paper deals with how people use public libraries. An attempt is made to distinguishbetween different user groups on the basis of how they use the library. The roles of thelibrary in relation to its users are also discussed.The paper is based on a user study with the cooperation of 195 users. The user studywas carried out at the Public Library of Alingsås 1994. As material for comparisonsimilar studies from Sweden, but even from Denmark, have been used.

This paper aims to investigate how Helsingborg?s city library?s visi-tors feel about computer games being available for lending and in which way computer gamers see Helsingborg?s city library as a resource. This was examined first with a study of 100 of the library?s visitors and then with five interviews with computer gamers and an interview with the librarian responsible for purchasing games.The study showed that most visitors were neutral to having games at the library and of the ones that were not neutral many more were positive than negative. Of the five gamers who were inter-viewed, there were several who had borrowed games in the past.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to develop an understanding of why non-users do not use public libraries by studying their information and culture habits and their relationship to public libraries. One of the motivating factors behind this choice is the lack of earlier research on the subject, particularly qualitative research. The theoretical framework is stratified into three associated levels with Brenda Dervin?s sense-making theory on an individual level, Marianne Andersson?s and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the roles of public libraries on an institutional level and Pierre Bourdieu?s theoretical apparatus on a social level.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how five public libraries reason about the use of social media in their day-to-day work. This thesis aim to answer three research questions: What is the libraries use of social media today? How do libraries look upon their own use of social media? And have the libraries formulated any goals about their use of social media, and what are their thoughts on this? The methodology used in this thesis is a content analysis of the libraries social media and a questionnaire interview which was sent by mail to all of the libraries involved. The theoretical framework for the thesis is a model developed by Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Skot-Hansen.The results of our study shows that the room of meetings, from the theoretical framework, are the most represented in the content of the social media used by the libraries. The libraries find that social media is a good way to connect and communicate with their users, but they feel that the time they spend on their social media is not enough.Our study also shows that most of the libraries have not formulated any goals for their use of social media, and that they do not have any intentions to do so..

The aim of this thesis is to study 15 and 16-year-olds? perception of libraries. Despite the fact that the youth is seen as a prioritized group when it comes to library work, the focus is often drawn to the children, and there is a risk that teens and their needs are set aside. My focus is the public library and how the young people in my study use it in their leisure time. The theory of the thesis is a model created by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Jochumsen and it highlights four possible rooms or functions in a library, concerning inspiration, learning, meetings and creativity.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine and analyze the discourse concerning a new public library in Stockholm. The paper further discusses how this discourse corresponds with what is written about public libraries in a number of national and international documents. To do this I have utilized the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. By using some of their instruments I have established the discourse around a number of keywords.

Recent papers and bills from the Swedish Government deal with the possibilities  of giving all Swedish citizens the possibility of their own creative actlvities in the cultural sector. This work is about where such actlvities shall be placed in order to make them obtainable  for all. As an example of creative work this work takes computer-based music-making. At the public library in Odense, Denmark there is a weil functioning sound workshop where the public gets the opportunity of making music with some assistance from the staff. This work shows  that also in Sweden  the public libraries are the most suitable  institutions  for placing studies for computer-based music-making  for the public depending  on the public libraries'  traditions in adult education.

The purpose of this study was to find out what different groups of visitors do when they are at Borås City Library. Three issues were formulated from the purpose and they were: What do users do when they visit the City Library in Borås? What occupations do those who visit the library have? What similarities and differences are there in the use of the library depending on the visitors? occupations? To answer these questions a questionnaire was handed out among the visitors at Borås City Library. The theory that was used when the material was analyzed comes from the book?Gør biblioteket en forskel?? and the book is written by Henrik Jochumsen and Casper Hveneegaard Rasmussen.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the methods public libraries can use in order to market youth services. It is also a chance to evaluate an untested marketing model adapted to public libraries. Young people are one of the most difficult groups to attract to the library and thus librarians need adequate methods to deal with this problem. We have interviewed librarians, carried out observations and examined documents in accordance to the triangulation method. Before one can begin marketing the libraries one ought to know of how marketing is done and the principles behind it, therefore we have given a simple explanation of marketing and marketing theory.