The aim of this thesis is to examine how the Swedish daily press portraits librarians and the profession. I have used a discourse analytic study in my purpose to examine the image of librarians and the profession. I have analysed 34 articles between January 1, 2009 until January 1, 2010 from Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, which are the two daily newspapers with the largest circulation in Sweden. I have used three major questions to answer the aim of my study: In what context do librarians and the profession appear in the daily press?What qualities are librarians assigned in the daily press?What views and attitudes about librarians and the profession appear in the articles?My analysis resulted in three discourses; discourse about librarians? relation to literature, discourse about librarians and the labour market and discourse about librarians and information.

The aim of this paper is to examine why Swedish teachers and multilingual secondary   school pupils think it is important to read fiction, how Swedish teachers work with fiction in the multicultural classroom and how they motivate their multilingual pupils to read more by adapting fiction to their capabilities and experiences. We have done interviews with four Swedish teachers and 12 multilingual pupils. The following questions are the starting point of this essay:Why do Swedish teachers and multilingual pupils think that it is important to read fiction?  ?How can the Swedish teachers in the multicultural classroom motivate their multilingual pupils to read more fiction?The result of this paper showed that both the Swedish teachers and the multilingual pupils thought it was important to read fiction because it partly gives themselves the opportunity to acquaint with other cultures and it helps them to improve their language. The teachers motivate their multilingual pupils by reading out loud, reading in groups and by minimizing language difficulties that may occur in the fiction.

Open access to scientific literature on Internet is a concept which is supposed to change librarians' work. The aim of the thesis was to examine librarians' perception of Open access. A questionnaire survey was conducted among librarians at libraries with specialisation in technique, natural sciences, medicine and pharmacy in Sweden. Even though Open access can be regarded as an alarming for librarians' work, the results of the survey showed that the future of the librarians' profession can be positive if they flexibly adopt their work routines according to changes in publication forms and library users' needs..

In this paper Mona Hatoums installation Corps étranger is discussed via a post structuralized method based on associative and semiotic comparisons with vanitas, a post-modern self-portrait, and as a representative for modern visual art. The analyze touches upon pornography, science fiction and the quest for scientific conquest in outer and inner space. Theoretical references are Foucault, Freud, Lacan, Barthes, Dolar, Said and Virilio. Hatoum makes the observer a voyageur with the aid of the latest medical technology, endoscope, which gives her the opportunity to make an introvert self-portrait when she films her own throat and rectum. But at the same time she makes the portrait of us all.

With an increased empowerment of the users, and a dependence on outside critics, one wonders what kind of role the librarians have in a context where qualitative literature is discussed. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between librarians private and professional views on qualitative fiction, in order to be able to discuss their role as quality intermediaries in a user oriented context.The method used, is the qualitative, semistructured interview. This author interviewed seven librarians from three different libraries in Sweden. The theoretical emphasis partly relies on the ten words of qualitative value that Inger Elam and Bengt Brülde discusses in their respective texts, partly on David Garvins quality assessment theory, which defines several quality categories divided between an absolute and a relative quality view.Through the comparison between the private and the professional quality view, examined with the two theoretical approaches, the analysis of the interview material shows that there lies a complexity in the librarians professional role. On the one hand, they are dependent of both the users and the critics judgements about the qualitative aspect in the work with purchasing new literature to the library.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate the reading habits of six men who do not read fiction. The reason for my interest is the fact that men statistically read less fiction than women, and that there are few existing studies of this subject. The study investigates why these men do not read fiction, their attitudes towards literature, their reading habits, their leisure-time interests and if they experience fiction from other activities. Furthermore the study includes a discussion of whether or not there might be a connection between the men?s reading habits and their identity as men, as well as a discussion of all of the above in relation to their social background.

The essay concerns the role of fiction in school. The research questions is; what is ?readable?, what does the authors think of teacher's task to develop students' literacy skills through fiction and how do the authors think of the teachers' task of using fiction in school. The questions give a basis that describes the role of fiction in school today based on the authors' perspective. We have chosen to use the open surveys as a method.

The aim of this thesis is to examine possibilities concerning subject access to fiction film, i.e. appropriate ways to describe fiction film for subject retrieval. Problems regarding subject indexing in general, and subject indexing of fiction film in particular, are identified, as well as the uniqueness of fiction film and film genres. Four types of subject aspects are discussed: form and genre, fictitious characters, setting, and general topics. Several guidelines, form- and genre lists, and subject headings lists are examined and treated as potential indexing tools.

The study is based on three Swedish novels published in 1945,1956 and 1964, and three Swedish novels published in 1998, 2008and 2009. The aim has been to investigate how librarians are portrayed in Swedish literature, as well as a comparison between the older and the newer literature. What librarian images are portrayed in the analyzed literature? Is the portrayal mostly positive, negative or neutral? Are there any clear differences in how librarians portrayed in newer and older Swedish fiction? If so, what are they? The method used has been qualitative content analysis where relevant paragraphs have been coded and divided them into categories of appearance, personality, and professional identity. The conclusion is that the librarian is often portrayed as an intellectual and somewhat high-strung bibliophile.

The purpose of this study is to examine what view librarians have on reading promotion for adults, in particular reading circles, and in which way earlier experiences, education and competence form this view. To what extent, if any, do perceptions of professional identity influence the interest to carry out some kind of reading circles for adults?Our study is based on qualitative interviews with librarians, both those in charge of reading circles in libraries and those who are not. As theoretical starting point we have used Andrew Abbott's work on theory of professions and Jofrid Karner Smidt's thesis on literary preferences and different kinds of mediation of literature. For our analysis we will also use earlier studies on the subject to place our study in a wider context.Our conclusions show that the librarians in our study have an ambivalent view on their profession and professional identity.

This bachelor thesis? purpose is to investigate how purchase librarians work with foreign language collection management. Since about 15% of the citizens of Sweden are born abroad or have a foreign background, the subject of investigation becomes relevant because it touches a wide user group of the public library.Interviews were conducted with four librarians responsible for purchasing of foreign literature. The purpose of these interviews was to investigate which underlying strategies and thoughts are used as a basis for purchasing.Since the library act does not include guidelines regarding the content of the foreign literature collection, how is the literature chosen and to what purpose?As a theoretical framework a self-developed model was used to categorize the foreign literature into its different functions.

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 Master?s thesis is to investigate how public library users consider the knowledge of the librarians and to examine what the users expect from the librarians. To begin with, we contemplate our own view of the librarians, their knowledge and what help we expect at the library. Realising that we do not expect particularly much from librarians, although we have studied to become librarians for two years, we assume that the regular library user does not expect much either. This assumption resulted in our decision to investigate this particular question.

Abstract The topic of this essay is to show why I regard the non fiction novel as a problematic genre and to compare two popular and famous swedish non fiction novels; Legionärerna (1968) by Per Olov Enquist and Gömda (1995) by Maria Eriksson and Liza Marklund.I start with giving a short introduction to modern genre theory and to non fiction novels as a genre. I also discuss different definitions of non fiction novels by, for example, Rolf Yrlid and Lars-Olof Franzén. Then I discuss Enquist?s Legionärerna and the critics? reception of it. I am also doing the same with Eriksson?s and Marklund?s Gömda before I compare these two novels with each other. My conclusion is that Legionärerna and Gömda have a lot in common although there are some differences.

I have in this thesis looked at the reasons for why boys, in upper school classes, read so little fiction. Several surveys show that boys in their teenage years stop reading fiction. If they read fiction it is only as a school assignment and not as leisure. There has been research done in boys attitude towards literature, but there hasn?t been any research done asking them about why they don?t read fictionI have interviewed a group of boys about their reasons, and attitude, for why they don?t choose to read fiction on their spare time after school.