This master thesis is about amateur writing. To understand the writers needs and wishes about writing and access to information I have researched writing in a writing group. To answer my questions I have studied research literature and interviewed six of the members of the writing group. I also participated in their meetings for two years. The result of this study shows that writing had a therapeutic function for all of them in a period of their lives.

This Master's thesis concerns the professional knowledge of the librarian. The image of this knowledge is regarded as constructed in a social context, which is why the discourse analytic approach is selected as method. The empirical material consists of two texts concerning the education of Librarians. A theory of knowledge, emanating from Aristotle, is applied to the results to find examples of the forms of knowledge that are excluded from the discourse. A number of themes, or ways, in which it is possible to discuss the phenomenon of the librarian's knowledge, are identified in the texts.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to study how Librarians at public libraries make the literature with state supported distribution available through marketing. By qualitative interviews with nine heads of libraries the thesis examines how the library staff in each library market the state supported distribution by the Swedish Art Council. My theoretical framework is based on Philip Kotler's thesis on marketing. My conclusion is that the library staff rather market the library as whole, than focus on just one specific type of books. The attitudes toward the state supported distribution are a mixed one, but the library staff is glad for what is given..

This master's thesis in Library and Information Science examines how the genre division of the horror fictionis constructed at the children and youth department of a library by studying subject headings of the titles.The aim is to examine what is included in the genre, in the two labelings called vampire and nail-biter/spine-chiller, what separates them, and what difference there is between children and youth thrillers/horror fiction. Also the cover designs and how readers portray these books are studied. The study is made in order to develop the knowledge of the genre to help Librarians and borrowers. The great popularity of the genre among borrowers and people in general, and the importance of having knowledge of things that borrowers are interested in, are the motivation of performing the study. The method is a case study and conducted with and based on genre theory which shows how a genre is defined, how it can be divided and what conventions there are for the horror fiction in particular.

The aim of this essay is to give a picture of the extension work at Partille Public Library, asit is today, as well as to investigate if there is a need to reconsider the way of working at thelibrary.Qualitative interviews have been made with the extensive Librarians and certain local governmentpoliticians, borrowers and personnel at hospitals as well as other institutions.The extension work at Partille Public Library corresponds quite well to the intentions whichare stated for the work in certain important investigations made by the Government. Theborrowers and the personnel are quite satisfied with the work and are only pointing out a fewviews on changes. The politicians mean that the aim of the extension work of the library ison one hand to give service to certain more or less neglected groups and on the other handto reach new book readers..

The purpose of this study was to find out what kind of fiction 120 borrowers at Sundbyberg'stown library borrow and how they obtain information about the existence of the books theywant to borrow.I have carried out an inquiry among those visiting the fiction area of the library and alsointerviewed three Librarians. To be able to compare my results with other more extensivesurveys, I have studied some literature about, e.g. reading and library habits. Furthermore, Ihave read articles about fiction at libraries and culture politics. I came to the conclusion thatcrime novels are the most popular kind of fiction whereas science fiction and fantasy fictionare the least popular ones.

This Master?s thesis concerns the question why a public library establishes a special room for young people and how the young people can influence the activities. I have made interviews with two Librarians and four teenagers from a reference group. I have also made an observation of the room. The most important theories are Pierre Bourdieu?stheory of symbolic capital and Mats Lieberg?s theory of free zones.

The aim with this Masters thesis is to examine the professional knowledge of the librarian. The method used is text analysis of a state public investigation, SOU 1969:37, that concerns librarian education. The theoretical starting point is a theory of knowledge thats descended from Aristotle. Three different forms of knowledge are central concepts in the theory: the theoretical, the practical and the ethical. The main issue in this thesis is: In what ways did the investigators look at the Librarians knowledge? Was it in a changeable period of time? In that case, what reasons could there be? The conclusion shows that educational political changes were affecting the whole educational sphere at the late 1960:s, and in the beginning of the 1970:s, including library education.

The aim of this study is to examine how work at music departments in public libraries has changed with time. To analyze this, the role of music libraries as well as music library users, selection, holdings, acquisition and technological development have been examined. The examined data consists of qualitative interviews with music Librarians and library assistants at public libraries in Sweden. To get a time perspective, handbooks and articles about music departments in libraries have also been analyzed.This study emanates from Sanna Talja?s discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland.

A qualitative study about collaboration between Librarians and nurses in the supplying of consumer health information (CHI) at The Hospital Library of The Mölndal Hospital in Mölndalnear Gothenburg, Sweden.The staff were interviewed about how their work is affected by the collaboration between thetwo occupational groups. The purpose of the study is to find out if there exists a strugglebetween the groups about the influence on and the control over the handling of this kind ofinformation. Despite some problems with the permission to do as many interviews as needed,the study shows some positive effects with the collaboration. The study gives a short backgroundto the development of CHI services in USA, the UK, Denmark and Sweden. Fourfurther CHI service centres in Sweden are shortly presented and one member of each staffwas interviewed by telephone..

This thesis treats lending figures of literature on religion at libraries in Vårgårda and Lerum.Formulated hypotheses are: The use of literature on religion is higher at the library in Vårgårdathan at the one in Lerum; In Lerum the most literature on religion is used by highly educatedpeople; Ethnic groups and Librarians have an influence on the stock.The Christian literature has other patterns than other literature regarding selection criteria,reviews and distribution. The conclusions are: The fact that there are many members ofChurch and Chapel in Vårgårda, does reflect the number of loans of literature on religion in apositive way; Education does not influence, but distance between school and library; TheLibrarians' interest and therefore knowledge regarding religious topics has an impact on theirtreatment of religious books, while ethnic groups do not effect stock and use in either Vårgårdaor Lerum..

This thesis is an attempt to study whether if problem-oriented teaching implies a moreadvanced use of school libraries than other teaching methods.Teachers have been interviewed about what kind of information they and their pupils need,and where they find their information. Another question is whether the problem-orientedteaching method makes it easier for the pupils to find information in school libraries thanother teaching methods do.The result of the study is that a problem-oriented teaching method creates opportunitiesfor the school library to become an important place for information retrieval. This teachingmethod is a major, but not the only determinal factor. Other contributing factors could beteamwork between teachers and school Librarians and the existence of learning aids..

This thesis is an attempt to study computer games and playful computer programs for childrenand youth at Swedish public libraries. The main method used, is qualitative interviews.The main reason the libraries in the study offer computer games and playful computer programsto their users, is that every member of the society shall have opportunity to use newtechnology such as computers and computer programs. The users of this media are for themost part boys. The Librarians in our study wish to have pedagogical games and programswithout violent themes at their libraries. Lending computer games and computer programs isnot of any priority for the libraries..

The aim of this master thesis has been to investigate discussions about public access to Internet in public libraries. Areas of interest were the debate in Sweden as well as in the United States. The approach was qualitative and questionnaires were distributed by e-mail to a number of Swedish public libraries. The results from the survey were then supplemented with a theoretical background and a literature study. The usable questionnaires obtained from 20 libraries showed a rather uniform approach among the Swedish Librarians of how the Internet is best provided by public libraries.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to see how public libraries have adopted the new e-book readers and how the libraries think the e-readers will affect them in the future. There are three different theories in this study which are used to see how the e-book reader influences the libraries as an innovation and as a remediation from the paper book as well as its evolution. The authors have used four qualitative interviews where they have tried to find the most relevant Librarians for the purpose. It was found that all the libraries in the study think that they need to learn about the e-reader and its functions to be able to understand users? needs, but they haven´t agreed if they should have the e-reader as a library loan.