This thesis presents a new way of providing library users with reference services, namely chat (text based digital reference service in real time). Our research questions focus on the role of reference service, a comparison of chat reference to other reference forms, and the interest for real-time, digital reference. Our literature review covered the areas of digital reference and reference theory, the results of which showed that an ongoing debate hardly exists among Swedish librarians on the topic of reference work. We interviewed librarians from the three different Swedish chat reference projects existing at the time of our study. Most interviewees were very positive about chat reference.

The purpose of this masters? thesis is to investigate how public librarians perceive privacy in connection with new technology in libraries. The main research questions are: - How do librarians experience the phenomenon privacy in the library?- How do librarians experience the relation between privacy and technology in the library?- What does this say about the relationship between privacy, technological development and library work?The study was performed with a phenomenographic methodological approach. The material consists of qualitative interviews with eight librarians who work at public libraries where the technology RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has been implemented.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate upper secondary school librarians conceptions of fiction mediation. By using a phenomenographic method, the different conceptions of the specific phenomena, how the librarians conceptualise their work with mediation of fiction, are made clear. The aim of the method is not to study what fiction mediation is constituted of, but rather how upper secondary school librarians understand it. Qualitative interviews were held with eight upper secondary school librarians about their conceptions of their working tasks, the meaning of fiction for youths, reading promotion, inspiration to purchase of fiction, free voluntary reading and if the importance of fiction has changed over time. The results showed that the upper secondary school librarians conceptualise their working tasks as both changeable and repeatable.

The purpose was to examine how the pre-schools used the public libraries in two Swedishtowns. We also examined if and how the pre-schools and the public libraries were coopera­ting.Literature showed that it is possible to stimulate children's language development and this is a duty for pre-schools and public libraries. We sent an inquiry to all pre-schools divisions in both towns. We interviewed two librarians. Our results showed that the pre-schools did use the libraries to a great extent but they didn't cooperate with the libraries in the sense that they had elaborated agreements.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine gender division in public libraries by reviewing literature and interviewing eight public librarians and two chief librarians. The reason why we decided to investigate this topic is the lack of research concerning sex-segregation in library and information science. By choosing this subject we intend to deepen the understanding of the significance of gender both within the public library and of the occupation in general. Some researchers claim that the low status of librarianship is a result of the large proportion of women in the profession. We want to find out how our informants view the relation between professional status and female domination.

The aim of this two years master's thesis is to examine public librarians? views of their pedagogical role towards school children, and to illustrate the relationship between public libraries and schools as a background for the role of the public librarians. The theoretical framework is Carol Cullier Kuhlthau?s theory of the roles of librarians as mediators in reference work (Levels of Mediation) and in education (Levels of Education). The main question of the study is: How do public librarians view their pedagogical role towards elementary school pupils and high school students? Related questions regarding the use of the public library for school purposes, the communication and cooperation between the public library and the schools, the difference between public libraries and school libraries and the librarians? view of pedagogical work are also made.The method used is qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the differences between the traditional way of conducting a reference interview and the electronic way. The main questions of this thesis are: How does the electronic reference interview appear in comparison to the traditional one? How do the librarians experience the differences? Is quality affected in the electronic reference interview? Examples from Fråga biblioteket Ask the Library have been used in this study. The method used in the investigation is based on qualitative interviews in combination with studies of relevant and recent literature. The librarians interviewed all have experience from both traditional and electronic reference work.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how acquisition of film for children and young adults in public libraries is carried out. The aim is to investigate why the librarians think a library should have film, if the librarians are bound by acquisition policies and where they retrieve information about films. We also want to know where the films are bought, how the distributors are perceived and how the librarians see their own sphere of competence. The thesis is a qualitative study and is based on interviews with children?s librarians in six public libraries.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine how blogs are used by public libraries for marketing purposes, and how librarians who blog perceive their blog as a marketing tool. The thesis is based on a qualitative study conducted using asynchronous e-mail interviews with librarians representing eleven different library blogs. The theoretical framework and concepts are taken from marketing theory, including Kotler's marketing mix, relationship marketing, and theories on the marketing of non-profit organisations, knowledge organizations, the Internet, and blogs. Our results and analysis reveal that libraries use blogs because they are an easy tool to use, they represent a new way to inform users about the library, they are a way to improve contact with the users and a way to reach potential users. According to the librarians we interviewed, blogs can be used to market libraries in a number of different ways: by disseminating information on the library and its various media and events, by providing a forum to demonstrate the skills of the librarians, and as a way of changing the image of the library.

We believed that knowledge organisation of manga and manhwa with homosexual (including lesbian) themes might be a challenge for Swedish public libraries. One of the reasons for this is that these themes in manga and manhwa usually occur in genres not directed towards an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) audience. To see how Swedish public libraries treat such titles and why they treat them as they do, we examined a selection of public libraries, their collections, acquisitions, cataloguing and shelving of relevant titles. The theory used is mainly Grant Campbell?s binarisms, subject access to LGBTQ literature and critical analysis of knowledge organisation.

This master thesis focuses mainly on the concept of quality and how the librarians responsible for phonogram purchase use it. The main object is to investigate how the librarians responsible for the purchasing of phonogram works when in the process of selecting the phonograms and how they speak about the concept of quality. Based on this main object four problems has been addressed. The empirical material is interviews made with the seven librarians responsible for phonogram purchase at seven Swedish libraries. The result of this investigation is analyzed based on a theoretical framework created by Sanna Talja, which focuses on what a phonogram collection should contain.

The main purpose with this Master's thesis has been to through a case study investigate and analyze the music library activity at the Public Library in Lund, in order to find out according to which ideas and principals this activity is run by. It also discusses how you at the music department handle your task as intermediary of music and how well this coincides with the users expectations. To give the research more depth a special analysis has been made, assuming the perspective of the B&I-researcher Sanna Taljas' three perspectives regarding the music department. She identifies three perspectives in maintaining a music library, which she calls the general education, alternative and demand repertoire.The examination is based on an empirical research, where five librarians were interviewed and fifty users have responded to a survey, but the essay also includes a literary study carried out to explore which ideas there are regarding the music department's missions and roles in the existing literature.Librarians and the user's opinions coincide quite well. What distinguish the most are the opinions surrounding the competency of the music library.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to investigate the value and impact that reading groups organized by Swedish Public Libraries, have on its participants, role of the librarian and the Library as whole, according to librarian?s conceptions. In literature and earlier research reading groups are described to represent an important reader pro-motion tool for Public Libraries. At the same time the typical reading group member is often described as a per-son with a familiarity of reading. Another purpose is therefore to investigate the contribution of reading groups in promoting reading, according to librarian?s conceptions.

The main purpose of this thesis was to examine how hospital librarians worked with young people at a children?s and young people?s hospital in Sweden. We wanted to see how they promoted their health with culture and cultural means such as book trolleys. We did a case study, and made three qualitative interviews with the hospital librarians. The purpose was also to find out what the hospital librarians thought of young peoples.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how some children's librarians view their working situation. There is one main question and three subquestions at issue: How is the working situation of the children's librarians today described by agents on the library field? - Are children's librarians ascribed any value and has this changed during the last three decades'? - What is the apprehension of children's librarians and what qualities should they possess? - What is considered to be most important about work of children's librarians'? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with children's librarians, library managers and library consultants. The interviews are analysed by the help of Pierre Bourdieu theoretical concepts; capital, habitus, field, doxa and distinction. Today, children's librarians are ascribed capital by their librarian colleagues because of their specialist qualifications.