This essay discusses the problem of literary history in the Swedish school system. The aim of the essay is to discuss whether the textbook, Den Levande litteraturen, in literary history for Swedish high school students measures up to the demands of the curriculum in terms of obtaining knowledge about international literature and the historical and cultural framework that surrounds it. The essay establishes a theoretical framework that is used to distinguish the discourse that permeates the textbook and how it affects the means of sustaining the curriculum and the problems it may create.The textbook is broken down chronologically and analyzed showing quotes that points towards national and orientalistic discourses which in turn are discussed put in relation to the curriculum and the effects that these discourses might have on education in Swedish and literary history.This is in turn problematized with the current theories regarding comparative literary history..

The aim of this study is to examine Turkish nationalism in order to find what factors that play a part in Turkey's inability to confess and discuss such events as the Armenian Genocide, which took place between the years of 1915.-1923, by the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The factors found and examined closely are collective memory and the use of history. The paper is a case study of Turkey with a theoretical approach, trying to apply theories of nationalism, collective memory and history-writing on Turkish nationalism, in order to find an answer to how these factors stands in the way of reconciliation.Conclusions are that Turkey as a nation is stuck in a romanticization and glorification of the time of their founding leader, Atatürk, and the thought of the pure, homogenous Turkishness. This makes the nation incapable of discussing and accepting what others in this case acknowledges as historical facts. The taboo-making of these matters makes reconciliation today not possible..

This is a two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies, which purpose is to find out what ideas there are about school libraries and to get an idea of how informants interpret the new Education Act, which requires all students to have access to school libraries. Another intention of this paper is to highlight the potential rural-related attitudes of the responents. The study includes the sparsely populated municipality of Krokom and is based on interviews with librarians, the school director, principals and politicians who work there. The theoretical basis for this paper is Loertscher?s model för school libraries and a centerperiphery perspective.

The purpose of this master´s thesis was to investigate the role and function of the annual reports of public libraries: for what purpose are they put together and how are they evaluated and utilised. The study presents different views on the structure and content of library annual reports. Focusing on a specific public library and its municipal administration, the authors identify and describe problems and possibilities regarding the library annual reports. The study also provides a general view of their occurrence, their addressees and the importance attached to them.In a review of current literature on accounting and activity reports the authors place the annual reports of public libraries in a wider context. The study also presents two current models of performance measurement - the Intangible Assets Monitor and the Balanced Scorecard - which were developed in the private sector, and the authors discuss their relevance when applied to public libraries.Data were collected both in interviews and by means of a questionnaire.

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 following thesis is a study of the forest history on the island of Ängsön-Marskär concentrating on the last three hundred years. The island is located in the administrative province of Stockholm, the local community of Haninge and it is situated approximately seven kilometres east of the island Ornö in the south of the Stockholm archipelago. The questions this thesis attempts to answer are: How where the natural resources on Ängsön-Marskär used through the centuries? How has the state of the forests developed since the 16th century? How will the nature develop onwards? The thesis is based on archival sources for Ängsön-Marskär and the surrounding areas. A field study was conducted where the entire island was investigated using an objective forest inventory method. The first map material existing over Ängsön-Marskär is from the year 1711.

In today?s world urbanisation is an on-going process, cities are growing and becoming denser, and places for recreation gain value. Therefore, urban parks are much appreciated by people living in cities. When the first public parks where planned, their main function was to increase health, hygiene, education and social life. In the middle of 19th century the meaning of public parks to people?s wellbeing gained attention and parks were planned to provide space for lively activities. This paper focuses on parks? activities.

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.

Anne Reese: Johan Lindegrens vägval : en studie i de faktorer som påverkade enskilda aktörers verksamhet inom Stockholms musiksamhälle 1860-1908, Uppsala universitet: Institutionen för Musikvetenskap, uppsats för 100 poäng, 2007.The aim of this essay is to show some of the factors which affected the production and work of the individual musician or composer within Stockholm's music society in the late 19th century. By a case study on Johan Lindegren (1842-1908) I demonstrate how a musician or a composer functioned in the social structures of the music society and how power affected the work of the musician or composer. This essay also fills another purpose as it gives Lindegren a more detailed biography, which is something that has been missing until now.By applying a concept of power, as discussed by Michel Foucault, to this subject and interacting it with the concepts of musical opportunism, I present a new way of talking about the social, as well as the individual factors that affects the individual musician within the music society.The conclusion is drawn that there are two different types of factors that affects the work of the individual; 1) the social network and power within society, which presents positions and opportunities for the musician and 2) the individual character of musician which determine the way the individual uses the position or opportunity he or she is given..

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..

This paper deals with U 150, a rune-stone raised by Jarlabanke, a wealthy man who lived in the 11th century. He raised about 7 rune-stones telling us that he made bridges, roads and was the owner of the whole of Täby. U 150 is carved with ornaments that seem to be a lot older than the other ornaments of the Jarlabanke stones that Jarlabanke raised for himself, while he still was alive.  It is argued that the rune-stone U 150 was in fact made by another man called Jarl Banke (not Jarlabanke), who was a Jarl in the 11th century and is mentioned on at least three rune-stones in the same area as the Jarlabanke rune-stones..

This study analyzes academic narratives about modernity and secularism in Turkey between 1980 and 2007 using the concepts historical orientation, narratives of modernity and landscape of modernity formulated by the German theoretician Jörn Rüsen and developed by Swedish historian Martin Wiklund..

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.