This study examines the closure of public libraries, and the nonprofit organizations takeover of them as a phenomenon. The aim is to understand why the nonprofit takeover is common and what the takeover symbolizes and if the discourse in media invokes the views on libraries and the profession.Interviews were made with librarians, politicians and representatives of a nonprofit organization to study different sides of the phenomenon. Other empirical data were found in local and national newspapers and media-channels. I discovered that public libraries are highly valued by both politicians and the community. The study also showed that a library in a community makes people feel valued.

The purpose of the thesis is to describe the developing of the branch libraries of the public library of Kristianstad between the years of 1967 and 1977. The municipality of Kristianstad was grounded by a unification of the city of Kristianstad and ten small municipalities. The fusion takes place in three different stages during the years of 1967, 1971 and 1974. The first stage included the city of Kristianstad and the municipalities of Araslöv, Nosaby, Träne and Vä. The municipality of Araslöv got free small villages and village of Färlöv was the biggest one.

This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

This Master's thesis discusses the freedom of speech, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas in the context of public libraries in Sweden. The scope of this thesis is to examine the acquisition and maintenance of the literature about the killing of Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme 1986. This literature will serve as an instrument to measure the extent to which Swedish public libraries adhere to the rules set by the Swedish parliament, United Nations' universal declaration of human rights article 19, UNESCO's public library manifesto and the principles of the Federation of Library Associations and Institutions..

The aim of this study is to compare how three local librarieshandle their collections, and to compare this with handlingcollections at national level. I have investigated librarian?sopinions of their collections and how they take care andpreserve them for the future. It has also been studied if thelibraries collections of old material contains more than justold book rarities.In this study I had compared my respondents answer withSvante Beckman and Magdalena Hillström`s theory ofmuseum`s four idealtypes. Their view of a museum is in theforms of a treasury, archive, school and a theatre.

This Master thesis focuses on change conditions and change ambitions in Swedish public libraries. I have chosen to focus on three libraries that participated in a much-debated developmental project sponsored by the Swedish Arts Council almost twenty years ago. The aim of the project was to enhance service-quality, increase user-influence over media acquisition and library routines, and to redefine the concept of quality in the library context. I have made comparisons of the conditions and change ambitions between the project period 1991-1994 and present day 2009. To do this I have analyzed the evaluations of the above-mentioned project and the developmental plans that every municipality in Sweden is required to write according the library-law of 2004.

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.

This bachelor thesis examines the library as a public sphere in the notion of Jürgen Habermas? theory from 1962. The questions asked concerns how the public sphere is discussed in relation to Swedish public libraries today in our late modern society. The analyzed material consists of the Swedish Cultural Bill of 2009 and five qualitative interviews with librarians. The material is analyzed with two of the four social actions presented by the sociologist Maw Weber: value-rational and instrumental.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to discuss marketing as it applies to some school libraries. Today?s marketing is about relations. It involves the establishment, maintenance and development of relations with users, non-users and other library related relationships.

AbstractThis paper intends, through a qualitative study to examine and analyze how a particular type of financial firms cooperate, and what this entails. The case study issue which shall be answered is "What does the firms Credit Suisse and Orn & Cie SA gain out of cooperating with each other?". By setting the general theories in the subject joint ventures, partnerships, against the empirical material gathered via interviews and data collection in Geneva, Switzerland  answers to what the cooperation between the two parties has resulted in for the respective companies has been found. The survey shows that the prevailing model of cooperation creates significant benefits for the two companies.

People move between countries and establish connections all over the world. This results in a need to solve problems with cross-border inheritances and partitions of joint property. Today these situations are regulated by the countries? own international private law. EU has adopted a constitution that harmonizes rules of jurisdiction and applicable law for inheritances but not the partition of joint property.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the road towards a modern library in the southern archipelago of Gothenburg between the years 1943 and 1976. The archipelago consists of about thirty smaller and larger islands, of which seven are inhabited throughout the year. Styrsö and the surrounding islands composed a municipality of their own until 1973. In January 1974 it became a part of the municipality of Gothenburg, this is also the year when the only bridge in the archipelago was ready to be taken into use, between Donsö and Styrsö. There is no bridge between the mainland and the islands.

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.

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 aim of this thesis is to examine how four decision makers at a University College and a library director at the same University College perceive the profile, image and identity of their library. This University College library is used as our main example. We have evaluated the main example in relation to two other University College libraries, in order to obtain a deeper understanding of how these library directors view their own libraries and to attain a more multi-dimensional view of the main example of our study. Our intention is to analyse the current situation, not the past nor the future. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with decision makers and library directors have been conducted.