The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the collection management at five different hospital Libraries´ children and youth?s section to discern different roles of the collections. We made qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians. The purpose was also to see how the collection development affected the different roles of the collections. We used two theories.

This thesis explores the opinion of different participants in the music business regarding music being made available at the public Libraries. The aim of the thesis is to answer the following questions; which are the most important issues concerning the distribution of music? How do the informants perceive the public Libraries mission and activity in regard to make recorded music available? Which are the benefits/disadvantages with music being made available at public Libraries? Seven qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the following organisations; SKAP (The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers), FST (Society of Swedish Composers), SAMI (Swedish Artists and Musicians Interest Organisation) SMF (The Swedish Society of Musicians), SOM (Swedish Independent Musicproducers), IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) and EMI Music Sweden. A study of literature and articles generated nine themes, which constitutes the frame of reference for the thesis. The result shows that several of the informants have not reflected upon the public library as an important actor when it comes to the distribution of music.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis was to examine how the Internet and other electronic sources have affected public librarians use of printed reference sources. During the last couple of years the use of the electronic sources - in particular the Internet has become more established in the Swedish public Libraries. Our aim was to examine if and how this has affected the use of the printed reference sources. This has been examined on the basis of the following factors: the gender and age of the librarians and how long they have served in the library. We also examined if the size of the library affects the use of the printed and the electronic reference sources and also which factors that are most important when librarians acquire reference sources.

Our thesis is an analysis of four librarians view on LGBTQ and which implications these views have on the practical work with LGBTQ issues in the public library. The three ideal types we can identify are the excluding, the including, and the normcritical approach. We also want to know if the four librarians? standpoints can be connected to the above mentioned ideal types. We can see that the area where the implementations of the three ideal types are most visible is the way LGBTQ material is displayed in the library space.

TPB, The Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille, has requested a study to investigate the organization and content of a possible future Swedish web portal for users with reading disabilities. The aim of this thesis is to conduct such a study, with an emphasis on knowledge organization. The main aspects studied are formal description, representation, search and retrieval, document retrieval, and additionally also aspects related to content. The following questions are answered in this thesis: - How are web portals, online databases and Internet Libraries for users with reading disabilities constructed, from an organization of knowledge point of view? - How can these solutions for knowledge organization be incorporated into a possible Swedish web portal? - With regards to content, which additional aspects are present in the studied web portals, online databases and Internet Libraries? The questions are addressed through a detailed study of ten web portals, online databases and Internet Libraries from Nordic and Anglo-American parts of the world.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to examine the debate in Swedish library press concerning outsourcing of public Libraries. The two magazines studied are BBL (Biblioteksbladet) and bis (bibliotek i samhälle). The period of time covered by the selected articles is 2005 to 2011. Although there are still quite few cases of tendering arrangements in Sweden, the question has been raised in the last years by the decision of the Municipality of Nacka (Stockholm) to outsource their public Libraries. Another important factor for bringing the question into focus has been the general elections of 2006, which brought an alliance of right-wing parties to power.     In this thesis the arguments of the participants are documented and analyzed.

This thesis investigates the situation for comics in Swedish public Libraries. The main questions is separated into two groups, the first dealing with the physical situation were we investigate placement, cataloguing and shelf arrangement. The second deals with the librarians attitudes towards comics and how they may affect their work. The base for this thesis is the idea that the comic medium may sometimes be treated different than the rest of the Libraries collections. Because of this, a theoretical basis is developed which focus on different views on comics.

The purpose of our research was to examine whether the acceptance and diffusion of RFID technology among the employees at public Libraries in Sweden, follow the classic diffusion of innovation model. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification, is a technology that uses radio frequency and microchip technology to track items, in our case, library books and other library materials. Diffusion is the process by which, in our case, the RFID technology is adopted by the library staff. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors influenced the acceptance and adoption of RFID among the library staff. We used Everett Rogers' Diffusion of innovation theory as our framework.

This bachelor's thesis is an investigation into the public Libraries'actions following the debate of Stina Wirséns character LillaHjärtat, featured in picture books and films for young children.The character was accused of being racist, due to its similarity tostereotypes such as pickaninnies. Because of this, the books'existence in public Libraries was questioned.The purpose of this study is to investigate how librarians havedealt with these books, and what they have based their decisionson. To explore the background of these decisions we have usedPatrick Wilson's theory of cognitive authority (1983). We haveexamined which cognitive authorities have been used in thedecision-making process of how to handle the books containingLilla Hjärtat, and why these cognitive authorities have beenchosen. The method used in the study is qualitative interviewswith seven librarians working in public Libraries throughoutSweden.The results of the interviews show that the librarians? mostprominent cognitive authorities have been authors and illustratorsof children's books.

This master's thesis deals with the public library project called the GÖK-project, whichconcerned three Swedish public Libraries: Linnestaden (Göteborg), Örnskoldsvik and Kalmar.The general outlines for the project were: reconsideration of the conception of the literaryquality, improvement of the library services, adjustment to the library user and reconsiderationof the conception of adult education to the public Libraries of the 90s. The projectcaused a big national debate with effort put on the conception of the literary quality.The topic of this master's thesis is partly the GÖK-project and its general outlines, partly theaccomplishment of the project, the main point put on the public library in Linnestaden(Göteborg)..

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.

The focus of this work is to study whether public Libraries should offer their patrons unlimited access to the Internet, or restrict which sites they can visit. The most common tool used to limit Internet access is filtering software. The author has administered four interviews with public librarians working in Libraries in Southern Sweden. All four librarians had different opinions about restricting Internet access. The most important question asked was if they had chosen to use filtering, and the reasons for their decision.

The study's aim is to create an understanding for the question why Sweden in 1921chose to create its own classification system for public Libraries instead of adapting e.g.the Dewey-system which - at this time - was internationally we11 spread. It examines thesocial changes which proceeded the creation of the Swedish Library Association (SLA)in 1915 and discusses in depth the work of the committee appointed by SLA to createthe classification system. Special interest is also given to the relation between SLACSand the Dewey-system.The study shows that the main influence on the codttee's work was the formerSwedish tradition of classification practice. The Dewey-system was seen as inappropriateto adapt in the Swedish Libraries because of the vast changes that wouldhave to be done, and the fact that the decimal notation was practically unused in anyLibraries in Sweden.From a methodological point of view, the study tries to apply a critical hermeneuticalapproach as developed by Paul Ricoeur.The study contains an extended English summary..

Mediation of fiction for adult users in Swedish public Libraries is a subject which has been little studied from a theoretical perspective. The motivation for this thesis was based on this realization, and the opinion that actual library users too seldom get their voices heard in library and information science-research. The thesis analyzes interviews with seven library users in which they have been asked to talk about the librarys work with mediating fiction. The answers are analyzed using a discourse analytic approach to see how the librarys work with mediating fiction is constructed in the users talk.Two main discourses are identified, one authoritative and one neutral. In the authoritative discourse librarians are talked of as experts who have the knowledge to guide users to the ?right? literature.

This bachelor?s thesis describes a qualitative case study of a public library as ?third place?, a place besides from home and workplace visited frequently for conversation. The subject is chosen because of the many roles of public Libraries. The main query of the study is ?What view does the public library have of its role as third space and how does that relate to the way utilization of the public library as third place is seen??.