During the past decade, consumer health information-centers have been developed at the hospital libraries in Sweden in order to meet the increasing demand from patients and their relatives concerning consumer health information. In 1993, the hospital libraries in Falun, Västervik and Karlstad launched a consumer health information database called PION. The aim of this Master's thesis is two-fold. My first aim is to describe and discuss the principles of user-oriented evaluation. In my attempt to convey the theoretical discussion into the everyday life of librarianship, my second and most important aim is to conduct a user-oriented evaluation of the database PION.

För att alla elever ska kunna uppnå scientific literacy bör man utgå från barnens erfarenheter där naturorienterade ämnen, NO, knyts till ett sammanhang ? en kontext. I kontexten synliggörs naturvetenskapens mänskliga sida, och därmed visa att NO är mer än fakta. Elever behöver lära om naturvetenskapen, vilket kallas nature of science, NOS. Vårt syfte är att ta reda på hur lärare aktualiserar nature of science genom ett Linné-tema.

This report documents the process of designing a laboratory exercise in Fourier analysis at Vetenskapens Hus (House of Science) in Stockholm. The lab is designed for high school students studying science or technical education. It focuses on the physicalunderstanding and mathematical description of sound, in particular music. A model of such a lab is presented in this work; containing a review of the mathematical theory, summary of educational research in the field, descriptions of the design process and of the investigativework that led to the final result. The designed material for the lab includes developed computer programs, visit leader tutorial and description for teachers. .

This study is an analysis of the Internet transaction logs of Malmö Public, Sweden [...].

In this essay, a search strategy for citation index is studied. The strategy, which is essentially a citation cycle, starts with documents retrieved by a subject search, wherefrom new documents are identified following the network of citations backwards and forwards in time. Based on the theory of polyrepresentation, the strategy exploits overlaps between cognitively different interpretations of the same documents in order to automatically select references seed documents used as a starting point for the forward chaining. The purpose of the investigation is to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of the search strategy and to find out whether the strategy can be used to expand a subject search with the help of the network of references in order to retrieve new relevant documents. Two questions are formulated: 1a.

Eight libraries, seven public libraries and one college library, in the northeast of Skåne serve as foundation in a collaboration where students and adult learners are placed in the center of attention. The aim of this Master's thesis in library and Information Science was to study how the students and adult learners in the northeast of Skåne perceive the library services that are developed with their needs in mind.Our method for this thesis was a quantitative interview study. We aimed to conduct interviews with users at the public libraries within the cooperation and thereby find out whether or not users within the target group were aware of the services that are developed and established within the northeast Skåne collaboration.The results showed that only a few respondents in the key target group did in fact know about certain parts of the library services especially developed for the northeast of Skåne-collaboration. The majority of the key target group also thought that study-related literature and reading rooms were the most important means that the libraries have to offer them in their studies. The northeast of Skåne-collaboration had many ideas concerning library services.

Science Fiction har sedan sin uppkomst gestaltat samhället och de samhällsfrågor som för sin tid är aktuella. Alltifrån ifall människans existens är kroppslig eller andlig, till vad som händer när livsformer från andra planeter kommer till Jorden, har diskuteras i Science Fiction. I tv-serien Battlestar Galactica gestaltas och problematiseras vår samtid. Genom att flytta mänskligheten från Jorden och ut i rymden, där de konfronteras med en mängd etiska och moraliska frågor ? tvingade att se över vad de själva är och vad de håller på att bli.

The aim of this master thesis is to discuss the access to literature and reading by mentally retarded persons, and how this is affected by library and care taking staffs awareness of mentally retarded persons needs of literature and reading. The reason why we decided to choose this essay topic, is that there is a lack of research about mentally retarded persons relationship with libraries, literature and reading in the field of library- and Information Science. This groups needs must be brought to sight, so that they can take part in the literature just as anyone else, on their own conditions. Our study involves interviews with four librarians, three reading representatives and a co-ordinator at the Easy-to-Read Foundation. We can establish that all of our informants prove to have significant knowledge about mentally retarded persons and their needs of literature and reading.

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 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.

AbstractTitle: Internal communication at IKEA ? A functional analysis of IKEA Uppsalas internalcommunication (Intern kommunikation på IKEA ? En funktionsanalys av IKEA Uppsalas interna kommunikation)Author: Fredrik JohanssonAim: The purpose of this study is to analyze the internal communication at IKEA Uppsala.Are the channels of communication working efficiently? How is the information received by the employees? Finally I will make a few suggestions on how the internal communication can be improved.Method/Material: The method used in this study is quantitative. The internal communication at IKEA Uppsala is analyzed based on the results of a questionnaire. 75 employees at three different divisions were given questions on how they appreciate the communication channels at IKEA in Uppsala. 50 answers were received.Main results: The results clearly show that even though the internal communication at IKEA seems to work well in general, a few of the channel needs to be improved.

The following essay or thesis is a study over scientific endeavors in the fringe. It is a study of Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, whose proponents aim to make the UFO phenomenon (or phenomena) a subject of scientific scrutiny. To achieve this, the ufologists first have to redefine common concepts of ufology as pseudo science or religion, mainly by challenging definitions given by scientific sceptics on the one hand, and proponents of conspiracy theories or the new age environment on the other. Thus UFO-Sverige seeks to construct an alternative scientific identity in contrast to adversaries on both sides, each unwilling to give the UFO phenomenon any further examination. Following the work of Tomas Gieryn's sociological grip on questions of epistemology, especially concerning the social boundaries of science from other cultural categories through what has been labelled as epistemic boundary work, during which proponents of a particular field aim to achieve epistemic authority and thus the legitimate right to define what is and what is not science, I seek to analyze how questions of science and legitimacy are actualized in an intellectual environment or culture not broadly accepted as scientific.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

In order to be able to change, to maintain competitiveness as a company in a world where rapid changes is part of the daily life, it is crucial to have knowledge and methods in how to change. One method, originally developed in Finland, is the Change Laboratory. This method is said to be efficient, not only concerning change aspects but also learning, since change and learning in this method is intertwined. This Master Thesis (20p.) tells about the process of conducting a Change Laboratory with a Swedish high-tech company and analyses factors in the process that makes change possible..

This Master?s thesis presents a descriptive study of the intellectual process to describe images in such a way that they can be incorporated into written information systems. The purpose of the thesis is to concentrate on the scientific development for the last two decades, in the area concerning the description of images so that they can be organized and incorporated into information systems and possible to retrieve when searched for. Library and Information Science (LIS) has a strong tradition of turning to the iconographical theories of Erwin Panofsky and to semiotics according to Roland Barthes, for models and theories for the interpretation of images. The question for this thesis is whether LIS in this scientific field, has deviated from these models and theories, or are Panofsky and Barthes and their scientific work still providing for intellectual and practical guidance for LIS within this area..