This study focuses on the encounter between the academic librarian and the academic library user with a specific need for information. The aim of the study is to examine the process of mediation of information and to uncover any inherent problems or systemic inertia that may occur within that process.Special attention has been given to information-seeking behaviour in the digital age and the possibility of viewing information literacy as a meta-literacy. The difference between the surface web and the academic invis- ible web is also investigated. Empirical data was collected by the use of ethnographic fieldwork at the Karolin- ska Institutet University Library over a period of five weeks. The data is analysed using actor-network theory as a point of departure.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what political, social and ideological reasons that were the base for the establishment of the Swedish temperance movement. Which judgements within this movement that resulted in the decision to establish publishing firms, how these publishing businesses were organised and what function they had in the literary circuit. The questions are: What principal political, social, economical and ideological reasons were the bases for the establishment of the Swedish temperance movement? How has their need for publishing firms arisen? Which were the publishing firms and who were the publishers? What ideas, purposes, experiences, values and judgements led to the establishment of publishing firms? In the first part of the theory I have used the historical materialism of Karl Marx; in the second part the theory of middle class publicity by Jürgen Habermas; and in the third part I have made a presentation of the literary circuit and how it works according to Marx and Habermas. The method used is an analysis of ideas and ideologies in literature and documents.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a small company manages its information, primarily the organization of digital documents. The two dominating themes are classification and information politics, the former in the context of a corporate environment and the latter to help us to describe the situation at the company. The method used has involved observation of the company's current computer network structure and also interviews with six employees at different levels in various departments at the company. The result of our investigation has been the realization that, although logical structure is important when organizing documents in a digital environment, it is also necessary to have rules regarding its implementation..

This essay is a discourse and a feminist theoretical analysis that focuses on the alternative discourse that we consider Feminist Initiative to be constitutive of. Our theoretical stance, with base in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory, builds on the notion that reality is characterised by conflicts between different competing discursive formations and that the social is an endless struggle over the preferential right of interpretation of meaning. More specifically, the essay focuses on the discursive struggle over the meaning of the term politics. It is our understanding that the dominant perception of politics necessarily excludes other understandings, which can according to Eduards, be explained as a consequence of a patriarchal distribution of power that renders the subordination of certain understandings of politics accordingly. Feminist Initiative, as an alternative discourse, can therefore be perceived as a threat to the dominating discourse of politics, which in order to maintain its preferential right of interpretation seek to illegitimatise and depoliticise the politics that the alternative discourse represents.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate international students? views regarding information seeking and use of information sources. A further aim is also to investigate the possible factors influencing information seeking in relation to everyday life for international students. Interviews were carried out with eight international students, 20-35 years old from three continents. They were to stay in Sweden for at least five months for the purpose of studying.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the implementation of genres, pertaining to non-fiction, in four different universal classification schemes BC2, UDC, DDC, SAB. It is not the aim of this paper to answer the question why certain genres are more implemented than others, or vice versa. Instead it is intended to be an investigation into the concept of non-fiction genres with the aim of attracting attention to the many interesting aspects of this concept for library- and information science research. An analysis of the schemes general auxiliary tables is performed by comparison with a specific genre-system devised by Ottar Grepstad. This genre-system is organised by dividing different genres into groups according to linguistic criteria.

The idea that I put forward in this thesis concerns the democratic system and the threat from discoursive impact on its core values. I focus my normative analysis on three of these democratic values: transparency, accountability and influence ? and what democratic problems the discoursive impact causes in conflict with them. I have used a critical discourse theory to define discourse and discoursive impact, by focusing on the process of discourse, rather than its nature. I deal with the political structure where I claim that the essential relation between citizen and politician is disrupted, due to lack of information and the imminent problems of the existing network society.

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how young women create their feminine gender positions in relation to their reading. Using qualitative research methods the empirical material has been collected through so called reflexive interviews with eight young women aged 15-17. From their statements the empirical material has been divided into five themes that are important to the young women, as well as to the formulation of the problem. This constitutes the model of analysis. The analysis has been conducted through an examination of these themes from a gender theoretical perspective and through the application of theories about reading and gender.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the accessibility in public libraries for persons with dyslexia and visually impaired persons. In order to do this, library services, information and attitudes have been studied. Data have been collected through interviews and studies of documents, in particular guidelines for library service to disabled persons. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is Professor Michael Bucklands different aspects of access to information. He discusses six types of barriers that must be overcome if access is to be achieved.

This masters thesis looks at the reception of the beat generation in six given American magazines spanning through the years 1957-1961. The study is basically one of literaty reception. The aim is to see how and if the institution of literature handed the beat generation an identity to go along with their arts. With the use of discourse analysis we have pointed out certain characteristics in the six articles that have been a part of building up an image of the beat generation as a whole. By dividing the result into the two categories social and literary practice we can clearer see what significants were used to create the beat generation.

English title: "Motivated system technician wanted" A study of the relationship between two parts in job advertisements". The purpose of this study is to describe the linguistics of job advertisements. The focus is on discursive practice and how the relation between employer and the proposed employee is created through the process of communication in job advertisements. The method concists of two parts: A critical discourse analysis using the three dimensional model for critical discourse analysis by Fairclough and a text analysis inspired by Hellspong & Ledin. 40 job advertisements were examined and the analysis revealed that the majority belongs to the category traditional job advertisement and a minority uses more than one discourse.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the identity of librarians. We have done this by conducting a text analysis where we have analysed texts produced by DIK, the major union of librarians, and by Library and Information Science departments in Sweden. The material we have analysed is texts produced in the aim of introducing and marketing the librarian occupation and education. The aim of this study is to find out how the identity of the librarian is expressed in this material. We have conducted the text analysis by adopting the critical discourse analyst Norman Fairclough´s theories.

This thesis discusses and analyses the existence of two different perspectives, a social and a technical one, in Library and Information Science (LIS). Most of the time the division between these perspectives seems to result in research only using either of them. This can be a problem when studying complex phenomena. We therefore see a need for a metatheory that unites the social and the technical. By presenting and analysing all doctoral dissertations published at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) 1993-2005, we try to detect and critically discuss the dichotomy between the two perspectives.

This thesis is a case study which describes the automation of a university library in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the case study is, firstly; to find out which actors and factors have started and influenced the automation and the implementation of ICT at Makerere University Library in Kampala, Uganda. Secondly; it also discusses if the automation has changed the librarys condition. The empirical material consists of fifteen interviews with librarians and students. The empirical material itself has functioned as a base when discerning the analytical themes.