The aim of this masters thesis is to examine how the educational work of the Swedish public library was regarded in the Swedish library journal Biblioteksbladet at three different periods of the twentieth century, i.e. the thirties, the sixties and the nineties. Using a theoretical framework from the field of professionalization and a methodological framework of hermeneutics, it is shown that the educational work of the thirties can be described as having a focus on free learning whereas the educational work of the sixties can be described as having a focus on public utility. The educational work of the nineties focuses on the information seeking process of the user. It is noted that this development during the century can be understood as a shift of the cognitive authority of the public librarians.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to present a survey of how Swedish libraries provide information services for children. In this thesis ?information? means non-fiction material and ?children? do not include preschool children. The method used is knowledge overview and the material (mostly Master theses in LIS published January 2001-June 2006) is related to user studies of children as information seekers.

This two years master?s thesis is a review and exploration of the Swedish debate concerning children?s literature from the 19th century to the present, as well as the evaluation and analysis of four adaptations of the tale Red Riding Hood. The aims are to identify how ideas and values regarding the role of children?s literature in society have developed over time and to contribute with a knowledge base for continued reflection and discussion on the subject of children?s reading and mediation of children?s literature in public libraries.The theory and method used in the thesis, is primarily based on the discourse analysis of Michel Foucault. I have identified four main discourses: the educational discourse, the liberation discourse, the politicized dis- course and the popular discourse.

The aim of this study is to find out what education in literature is like from a student perspective; what kind of literature the students read and how well they understand literature, and the methods and didactics used during the literature lessons. The questions at issue are:1) What kind of literature do the students read?2) How well do the students understand literary texts?3) What do the students think about their literature education?To be able to answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study. The inquiry was accomplished on 29 students, 17 boys and 12 girls in the upper secondary school. The result showed, despite the limited amount of students, interesting facts.

Syftet med undersökningen var att klargöra hur lärare arbetar med skönlitteratur i undervisningen. Jag har utgått från tidigare teorier om hur skönlitteratur kan användas i undervisningen, både genom läsning och genom samtal. Det är en survey undersökning baserad på enkäter och intervjuer från ett antal lärare verksamma på samma skola. Frågorna fokuserade på varför lärarna använde sig av skönlitteratur, hur de valde böcker och om och hur de sedan samtalade om böckerna de läst. Resultatet visade att både skönlitteraturen och samtalen var naturliga inslag i undervisningen, men de var inte alltid genomtänkta eller byggda på en tydlig struktur.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out whether the main class C (religion) in the Swedish classification system Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek is well adapted to classify materials published in or imported to Sweden, and handled by Swedish libraries today. The questions we put to ourselves were:1. How easy to understand, and how useful is the main class C religion today?2. What, in the main class C, is satisfactory?3. What, in the main class C, is inconsistent, anachronistic or incorrect?4. What, in the main class C, is in need of change or renewal?The method that was used was a number of interviews with librarians and cataloguers. We have interviewed eight librarians from six different libraries, of different types, but all with a relatively large collection of religious materials.Though all of our respondents have expressed a feeling that all the major religions deserve equal treatment in the classification system and a similar division of space, after some pondering on the subject, our respondents have agreed that a larger space for Christianity is warranted considering the composition of the current collections and publication. Our respondents have in some cases expressed that there is a lack of instructions as to how the subdivisions of the main class C (religion) is meant to be used.

The aim with this masters thesis is to investigate how gender is presented in Swedish picture books, in order to give librarians and other actors in the field knowledge about what kind of books they supply impressionable children with. I investigate if and how the changes concerning gender-equality in the Swedish society during the last 25 years are reflected in childrens literature, and compare how men and women are portrayed in four books from the early 1980s with four books from the 2000s. My study is delimited to three aspects of character formation, introduced by Maria Nikolajeva: description of psychology, actions and relations to other characters. It is carried through by consultation of Yvonne Hirdmans theory of how men and women are held apart and that the man in this relation constitutes the norm as well as Nikolajevas list of typical male and female characteristics. By reading and interpreting the chosen books, I analyse both text and pictures.

The aim of this study is to examine how public librarians in small Swedish municipalities experience their professional roles. As part of examining such an abstract subject as experiences we also examine what tasks they perform, which will function as a support of the analysis. The theoretical frame-work is based on librarian identities worked out by Anders Ørom and a model of professional roles worked out by Maj Klasson. The analytical procedure consists of both deductive and inductive viewpoints. The empirical material consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with five librarians that work in public libraries located in municipalities with less than 12 500 inhabitants.

The purpose of this Bachelor's thesis is to study the reasoning behind classification, cataloging and shelf arrangement of nonfiction graphic novels in public libraries. The aim was to examine which aspects of accessibility influence in which collection nonfiction graphic novels are placed.With qualitative semi-structured interviews we learned how six librarians motivated their choices concerning nonfiction graphic novels. We also interviewed a cataloger from Bibliotekstjänst to examine how nonfiction graphic novels are classified. In our analysis we compared our results to theories and practices concerning alternative shelf arrangements in libraries and legitimization of graphic novels. We found three types of shelf arrangements for nonfiction graphic novels: graphic novel shelf, nonfiction classification code and a mix of the two.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate the role of the public library when the local government in the municipality arranges distance education at university level. The thesis has two main areas of questioning and these are goals and resources. In the study it is examined if the local goals have changed during the period 2000 until 2005, due to the development of distance education. It is investigated if change actually has occurred and if it has, in what way the goals have changed. It is also examined if and how the goals correspond with the work that is being performed in the public library.

Is it possible, and suitable, to use multimedia in classic literature studies at Swedish upper secondary school? What alternatives are there?  Is there any foundation in the curriculum for an expanded conception of text as in multimedia?  Will the conception literacy support use of multimedia in classic literature studies, and in what ways? How do we generally look upon the definition text, is it only printed letters, or something more? To get an answer to the questions we decided to examine a number of theories, Gardner?s theory about the different intelligences, the conception literacy and the expanded text concept. In these three theories we took our starting-point for the following work. The main subjects became two interactive sights on Internet and one CD-ROM, all containing classic literature. Our previous knowledge in this subject field was very meager.  This work has given us an opportunity to discover some of the multimedia that is available, and the result we have come to is that multimedia absolutely belongs in studies of classic literature as well as in other subjects.

The aim with this master thesis is to study which ambitions and strategic aims Gothenburg?s district libraries have regarding their music sections. I have utilized my theory from Sanna Talja, a Finnish researcher in Library and Information Science. She identifies three perspectives in maintaining a music library. She calls them, general education, alternative and demand.

The purpose of this study is to examine the physical space of children?s libraries in Sweden, and also to see which influences there are in the literature about the same subject. What ideas exist in the literature about the physical room of children?s libraries? We have studied how and if these influences can be seen in a selected number of children?s libraries. Our theoretical perspective is based on Anthony Gidden?s theory of construction.

What is the relation between literature and philosophy and what can we learn from it? Is there something about the novel and its language, fiction and narrative that separates it from philosophical litterature? In what way is knowledge about this useful to us, and is it possible to use fiction for the understanding of philosophy?This study makes an attempt to shed some light on the by no means obviuos distinction between philosophy and literature. The aim is to understand what, if in fact there is something that separates philosophy from literature, there is about the distinction that makes it possible for us to separate the ideas in literature from philosophical ideas, and in what way we can use the novel, or fiction in its widest meaning, to understand philosophy. When teaching philosophy you´re often required to make the abstract tangible. But if there´s a misconception about the distinction in what makes philosophical literature philosophical, then maybe there is something to learn from literature, or, at least, something about the fiction and its aesthetics, that makes it easier for us to relate to and understand, for example, the theories that are debated in moral philosophy.There are some philosophers who have used the form of fiction to make their thoughts on philosophical questions understandable.

The aim of this Master?s Thesis is to examine the importance of literacy and reading in a country like Jamaica. What role do public libraries and bookmobiles play in promoting literacy, and how does this work correspond with the UNESCO public library manifesto?To answer this, interviews were conducted with nine Jamaican librarians, and study visits were made to libraries and bookmobiles. In addition, development plans, policy and other relevant documents were analyzed.