The aim of this study is to explain and analyse political steering of public libraries in Swedish municipalities and the roles of politicians and administrators in this process. To fulfil this purpose five municipalities have been studied. It is argued that both politicians and administration have to be included in a study of steering and that the relation between politicians and administrators should be seen as an interplay. Planning and evaluation are discerned as the two main activities in the steering process. The material in this study consists mainly of information collected through interviews with library responsible politicians and library managers in all five municipalities.The results show that libraries are considered politically uncontroversial and that politicians see little need for political interference and steering.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how structural changes are depicted as well as formally brought about in the documents of rule and regulation of Uppsala University and Uppsala University Library the years 1999?2013. Beside the documents of rule and regulation, also documents that is commenting on (or in other ways relates to) these are investigated. The study is based both in organizational theory and modern rhetorical theory. The results show that the University to a certain extent gained an increased possibility to micromanage the library?s working routines during the time span covered and the study traces the consequences this had on the library organization and reactions it evoked among the leaders and representatives of the library staffThis raised a debate between representatives from the University library and its mother organization, the University, regarding at which level in the whole organization decisions regarding the library?s forms of funding and everyday praxis.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the flow of information in an administration of the municipality Borås Stad. To achieve the aim the following questions were asked: How accessible is information? How is information used in the organisation? How is information communicated? Totally sixteen qualitative interviews was accomplished with employees at the administration. The results of the interviews show that there is a difference in how much and what sort of information the respondents use. They all seem to prefer information to be communicated face to face if possible or over the phone.

This thesis is about the public library of Ulricehamn and the cultural activities at the library during the period from 1960 to 1998. We have focused on the study of the cultural activities. It begins with the foundation of the library of Ulricehamn and a historical background to it. It follows with the definitions of the public library and a historical background to the public library in Sweden. Then we present the goal of the public library in general and the goal of Ulricehamn's city library.

This two year master thesis examines the Swedish prison library's history during cell prison era.The investigation extends from the mid-1800s well into the 1900s. The purpose is to investigate theprison library by using a power concepts influenced by Michel Foucault. The questions revolvearound the ideas that formed the basis for the prison library and how the prison library was organizedin practice. Three types of sources are used to answer the essay questions and illustrate its pro -blems. Firstly, annual reports concerning the swedish prison system.

This thesis is about the public library of Ulricehamn and the cultural activities at the library during the period from 1960 to 1998. We have focused on the study of the cultural activities. It begins with the foundation of the library of Ulricehamn and a historical background to it. It follows with the definitions of the public library and a historical background to the public library in Sweden. Then we present the goal of the public library in general and the goal of Ulricehamn's city library.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate if the mobile library has a similar role as the public library. To study this further we intend to examine the value and function of the mobile library. Answers are sought to the following questions: Can the mobile library be seen as a public library in a smaller scale? How do the users experience the value and function of the mobile library? What does the library staff think of the value and function of the mobile library for the users? What would the consequences be if the service of the mobile libraries would not exist? The method used was qualitative interviews. The groups of respondents are mobile library users and library staff.

The subject of this thesis is to ascertain the task of the public library in Swedish society today according to the employer, that is the State and the municipalities, and according to the public library itself. The thesis also tries to establish as to what extent these different actors share the same view of the task. To this purpose I have studied the library law, the target reports of municipal authorities and public libraries, and made interviews with public library representatives during the autumn of 2001. The particular consideration of this paper is whether the task is being described in active, culture making terms or in passive, service functionary terms. Initially, I describe the task according to the library law.

This thesis is about the public library of Ulricehamn and the cultural activities at the library during the period from 1960 to 1998. We have focused on the study of the cultural activities. It begins with the foundation of the library of Ulricehamn and a historical background to it. It follows with the definitions of the public library and a historical background to the public library in Sweden. Then we present the goal of the public library in general and the goal of Ulricehamn's city library.

The purpose of this Masters thesis has been to examine the importance of libraries for girls leisure time in secondary school. Focus has been on the use of the library as a leisure activity. Interviews were carried out with six girls of the ages 13 to 16. The conclusion of the study is that the library is of importance for the girls mostly through its books. Reading turned out to be an important leisure activity for the girls and the books provided by the library were of significance for their identity development.

This master thesis is about art activity in the public library. The essay takes its starting point from Government cultural political directives and my purpose has been to study how these are followed up in the municipal level. My survey takes place at the main library of Flen in the county of Södermanland. What I am looking for is, what the art activity looks like, what is decided regarding it and what the strategies are. Furthermore I look into how library visitors understand and participate in the art activity.

This thesis examines how library employees experience the library as a meeting place. Our questions are: What effect has the concept of a "library as a meeting-place" for library staff?How do they see the library as a meeting place? How do they see their workplace as a venue for meetings? The respondents interviewed work in public libraries. We were inspired by a cultural geographic theory that we re-designed. The following divisions were made in order to give the work a definitive structure:The "mental space"The library as a meeting place on a global and universal level;The "conceived space"Librarians and planners' thinking on the specific library as a meeting place;The "living space"How library staff perceive that the library is used as a meeting place in reality.In our analysis, we use a phenomenographic qualitative interpretive methodology.

The aim of this thesis is to study the effects of self-service on professional qualifications of library assistants in three public libraries in Sweden. The research questions are: - How do the library assistants experience that their professional qualifications have changed since self-service was introduced at the library? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between library managers and library assistants? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between the three different libraries? The method used is qualitative interviews with six library assistants and three head of libraries from three different public libraries. The theoretical framework for this study is constructed by theoretical ideas about professional qualifications and technology's impact on professionalism. The results indicate that the cognitive qualifications of library assistants have increased and social qualifications both increased and decreased.

The purpose of this paper is to describe methods to computerize a library and to compare theory with a process in a school library. The case study is based on a school library called Sunnerbogymnasiet which is situated in Ljungby. My questions are;- Which methods are parts of the process to computerize a library?- Which methods are used in the process in Sunnerbogymnasiet?- What does the practical process look like compared to the methods described in theory?In the paper I present the methods in the process according to the studied literature and compare these with a process at Sunnerbogymnasiet. The most significant result is that cooperation between the school library and the community library was the most important reason for the choice of library computer system.

This is a two years master?s thesis that studies five libraries. The purpose with the paper was to look at a specific material and study how it expresses itself around the architecture of the buildings, an if the descriptions were different depending on the library, public library or university library. The conclusion is that the ways of describing the library buildings have varied; depending on one part time and one part evolution. The way library buildings look and have been used has changed over time also, and as well how people perceive and talk, or in this case write about them..