This is a comparative study of six public libraries in the city of Gothenburg and its neighbourhood. The main purpose of this master thesis is to describe these libraries relating to a reform in the city council of Gothenburg and its neighbourhood. The comparison deals with a period of ten years, 1990-2000. In order to respond to this I formulated two questions: Are there any differences in the activities of these libraries? Has this reform influenced the librarians in their way of working and if so, why? I have studied relevant literature such as annual reports, investigations and analyses in order to be able to formulate the questions.

Abstract:According to the curriculum of the Swedish school the pupils should develop their historical consciousness. The aim of this study was to find out which pupils develop this consciousness by listing to an historical novel, talking about that book and writing stories. The study went on for four weeks and the subject of the teaching was the Middle Ages. 28 pupils took part and a variety of methods were used: 1: questionnaire about the lives of the pupils, 2: Making observations of their attitude to the teaching and 3: story writing. The results show that the social background does not influence the development of an historical consciousness.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how public libraries in Sweden handles their weeding procedures. A series of questions are asked: How does libraries in Sweden motivate weeding? What principles constitutes the procedure of weeding? Which aspects are given most importance when weeding is decided. How does views on weeding differ between libraries of different sizes? How does longer or shorter professional experience influence the view on weeding? The study was done through an online questionnaire which was sent to a number of staff members on different libraries via e-mail.

The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the management of free Internet resources in three Swedish research libraries. With the starting point in the increased quantity and importance of these resources, together with reflections on the change of the concept of collection, the thesis shows how and to what extent these freely accessible Internet resources are being integrated in the day-to-day work with collection development. It also elucidates the problems with the free Internet resources from the research libraries points of view. The study is based upon analyses of collection management literature and qualitative interviews with librarians at the chosen libraries. The thesis shows that the research libraries still have not come very far in their work of integrating the free Internet resources in their collections.

This essay aims to examine how science fiction literature is supported and made available for readers at four public libraries. Each library has its own opinion of what a public library?s role in society is, and that affects how literature acquisition and media exposure is done at that particular library. To explore this, the author uses a modified version of Elzinga and Andersson?s theory of traditionalism, pragmatism and emancipationism.

The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate how librarians perceive nurses as a user group and libraries? function for nurses. In order to achieve the study?s purpose six qualitative interviews with librarians working at medical libraries were conducted. The study has been performed with a phenomenographical methodological approach.

We studied the understanding of public librarians of the required qualifications for a public librarian, what these qualifications embody and how they should be used, and if there are any differences between geographic regions. We also compared our results to the Library Code, which describes the responsibilities of the public libraries. To complete our study, we interviewed fourteen public librarians at eight different public libraries located in both urban and rural areas in Sweden. Our results showed that even though the qualifications specified by the Library Code were identical, they were emphasized and used differently by the public libraries included in our study. This illustrates that the public libraries prioritize and focus differently on the various aspects of the Library Code.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine seven public librarians? attitudes towards manga as a new kind of literature in public libraries. Manga is an art form, originally from Japan, but in recent years manga has become very popular in the Western societies. The main issue of this thesis is how the librarians? look at manga and what they think about manga.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how public libraries in Sweden handles their weeding procedures. A series of questions are asked: How does libraries in Sweden motivate weeding? What principles constitutes the procedure of weeding? Which aspects are given most importance when weeding is decided. How does views on weeding differ between libraries of different sizes? How does longer or shorter professional experience influence the view on weeding? The study was done through an online questionnaire which was sent to a number of staff members on different libraries via e-mail.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how city librariesmaintain the intellectual freedom in their Internet service. Thediscussion about Internet filters has been quiet in Sweden forseveral years, so I wanted to see if there had been an increased useof filters. I also wanted to see if the city libraries regulated theInternet service in another way. I sent a survey to 100 libraries andgot answer from 83. To explain what intellectual freedom is, I usedStuart Hamilton?s theory about intellectual freedom in the librarycontext.

Sensory marketingAn effective instrument for libraries? We are living in a world of constant communication and information and because of that, marketing in general seem to have no distinctive effect. Consumers become overwhelmed by all the advertising messages. Due to this, it is clear that organizations like libraries must create a deeper and more personal connection to increase user satisfaction and foster the use of services, among both users and potential users. One way to achieve this is to make use of all the emotional elements of a product or a service.

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.

In this Master's thesis we investigate the collection management regarding fiction for adults. The apprehension of fiction has changed over the years. From the beginning it was considered to be mostly educational rather than being the purpose of entertainment. As for today these views are not opposites to each other. Regarding this we discuss the problem concerning terms of quality.

The aim of this two years master thesis is to explore the relationship between public libraries and deaf adults. I want to know if deaf adults are a prioritized group in Swedish public libraries. Deaf adults use Swedish sign language witch is a visual language and differs from Swedish. I discuss the difference in Swedish Sign Language and Swedish and the importance of Sign Language literature. I also explore what methods can be used for mak-ing the library service towards the deaf group more customer centered and service oriented.The lack of sign language knowledge among the library personnel can lead to communication barriers.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to describe the development of the most important libraries in Skövde, starting from 1830. We conclude our examination about 1940, when the municipal library has been active for almost ten years, and the libraries started by the temperance and working-class movements have been deposited at the municipal library. In order to explain this process we describe the development of the Swedish public library and its predecessors, such as reading societies and the popular national movements? libraries, as a background and comparison to the early libraries in Skövde.