This bachelor thesis is about communication problems and treatment during the reference interview. The purpose was to investigate the reasons of why users? information needs are not always understood by the librarian and what to do about it. I have also investigated what kind of skills that can be useful for Librarians to have and how a librarian can act in a way that makes the user feel welcome during the reference interview. The method I used was a literature study and an own study through interviews of library users.

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate a Swedish subject headings list for childrens and young adults fiction, from the perspective of consistency, and to analyze this concept's importance as a tool for measuring indexing quality. Another aim is to examine how Librarians view the subject headings list as an aid for indexing fiction. The main questions are: How does the degree of consistency change when using a subject headings list for indexing fiction compared to free indexing? How does indexing change according to the facets Form/Genre, Time, Space, Matter and Person when using the list? What do consistency calculations reveal about indexing quality? How do the participants look upon the list as an aid for indexing? The empirical material consists of results from two different indexings of fiction, conducted by Librarians. Consistency is calculated using Hoopers and Rollings algorithms.

A vivid democracy requires participation from those who live in it, including children. Unlike adults, children have special laws and regulations to ensure them their democratic rights. Librarians? decision on what to buy makes an impact to someone else, which puts the librarian in a hegemonic position. Therefore, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to, out of the child librarian?s perspective, view children?s participation at the public library in the matter of purchasing literature.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how academic Librarians experience reference work aimed at international students. International students are a growing usergroup in Swedish academic libraries. The study?s main research question is:- How do academic Librarians experience reference work aimed at international students?The study was performed with a phenomenographic methodological approach where seven qualitative interviews with academic Librarians were conducted.

The present thesis is about how preschool children develop their language skills. The purpose is also to discuss how library and preschool can collaborate and in different ways together help the children to achieve different skills and to use their first and second language in a more appropriate way. The main problem identified from literature and own observations is why library and preschool dont collaborate to help young children to develop their language skills? Which reasons are behind a lacking collaboration? What can be done to increase collaboration between the library and the preschool? How can Librarians and preschool teachers use their different professional skills in the best manner to be able to help the children to develop their skills in language acquisition? Is it possible to measure childrens language skills and how can one decide what characterizes a good collaboration? We started with a literature review and continued with collecting qualitative data by means of interviews with people who worked as Librarians and preschool teachers, who were supposed to collaborate in a language oriented project. We have chosen different language theories by well-known scientists and we have only picked a few of them, which we considered relevant for the chosen topic.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how pupils with Swedish as a second language and school Librarians perceive the concept of pleasure of reading and the feeling of being a part of society. Our research is based on qualitative interviews with eight students in grades 6-9 and from two different schools. We have also interviewed two school Librarians in these two libraries. As a method of analysis, we used phenomenography because it is the informants' perceptions of the phenomenon of pleasure of reading that we investigate.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how some Librarians working at a public library experience problems that can occur at the reference interview, slightly focusing on communication difficulties. Therefore I interviewed three Librarians working at the reference desk on a daily basis. I chose to limit the study to public libraries and to the south of Sweden. My main question is: what difficulties can a librarian encounter during a reference interview and what can he/she do to treat these? In support of my main question I have three subordinated questions:What reasons can there be to a librarian not understanding a user?s information need?What methods are useful for a librarian to enhance the condition of the reference interview? What attitudes and qualities can be of use for the librarian at a difficult reference interview?For the collection of empirical data I chose to use semi-structured interviews.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites for children?s participation in the activities of the public library as expressed by six children?s Librarians. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out to investigate how the Librarians interpreted the concept of participation and viewed power issues between children and adults. Further, difficulties and possibilities experienced in working with children?s participation and manifestations of children?s participation in everyday library work were also investigated.

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.

Different educational and professional backgrounds play important roles in how school Librarians prioritize activities in the school library. Whether the school librarian has a background as a teacher or as a librarian, they influence and apprehend the activities of the school library differently. The aim of this thesis is to find out how the school librarian looks at his/her commission. What shifts in priorities can be recognized depending on whether the librarian has training as a teacher or a librarian. This thesis also analyzes how the two different professional backgrounds justify their priorities in the school library.

The explosion of information technology has given users direct access to an ocean of information. Increased availability puts increasing demands on the ability of students and researchers to search for, filter, and structure information. In response, the role of the research library has shifted from being primarily an information resource to being an educational resource with a focus on teaching users what is known as information literacy. This thesis is a study of user-education at the Karolinska Institute Library KIB, the largest medical library in the Nordic countries. KIB has invested significant resources in developing user-education, and has a full-time user-education developer and a formal pedagogical platform for user-education.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the debate in Swedish library press concerning privatization of public libraries. The aim of the thesis stems from a desire to know whether Swedish Librarians, as has been alleged in contemporary right wing debate, are politically biased and adherents of socialism. The debate is analysed using the method of idea and ideology analysis, using the tool of ideal types of the ideologies socialism and neo- liberalism. As material I have chosen articles from the magazines Biblioteksbladet and DIK Forum, from the years 1989 to 2010. The reason for choosing the topic of privatization is that it is a controversial question and a topic one could expect to generate a heated debate.Four positions can be discerned in the debate.

This thesis investigates the reception of middle literature novels among critics in Swedish newspapers and at Swedish libraries. Works by three authors were chosen as representatives for middle literature: Helen Fielding, Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons. The investigation is based on interviews with Librarians at the Gothenburg City Library, the total purchased number of books at public libraries in Sweden and analysis of Swedish newspaper reviews. The result is compared with theories by literary sociologists as Jofrid Karner Smidt, Janice Radway, Erland Munch-Petersen and Staffan Bergsten among others. It was found out that literary scientists and critics had a different way of looking at middle literature.

The Swedish government has made the decision to transform the talking book system from an analogue system to a digital system called DAISY by the end of 2004. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how public libraries are affected by this system change. This is carried out by studying the current situation in public libraries concerning the transition to DAISY. This qualitative oriented study is primarily based on interviews with four Librarians and three library managers at six public libraries. Management by objectives is here seen as a suitably theoretical framework since public municipal libraries are partly regulated by the governments goals and laws.

In an international perspective the Russian children s library is a unique institution, being solely committed to children up to 14 years of age. In Russia of today it is, however, being exposed to hard pressure as the economical and social conditions have changed dramatically since the collapse of the USSR. My interest lies in examining this change of living conditions for the children s libraries and how this in turn affect their work and role in the present state. In order to view this change in a longer perspective, I compare the situation for children s libraries during the time of communist regime with that of today using documents about and from children s libraries. I have studied its legal position and conditions, financial and political state, and how the modern society affects children and youth, especially their daily cultural life.