Which expectations did leading debaters place on fiction as an instrument in achieving societal changes hoped for by introducing the Public library? How can the value of fiction be described in relation to the mission of the Public library, according to these moulders of public opinion? Place and timeframe for this thesis is Sweden around the years 1905-1912 (period of formation of the Public library here according to the Anglo-American model). Starting point is the assumption that the Public library as a political institution is characterized by an ideological function. It produces meaning and norms, it sets standards of value. Method used is based on close reading and comparison.

The aim of this two years master's thesis is to examine whether there are any gender based differences in the waymale and female researchers within Library and information science publish and reference to other researchers.This within the Swedish context. Further, the aim is to examine the probability of gender playing a part in choiceof subject, which thereby also would effect the act of referencing. This is achieved through an analysis ofreference lists in the journal Svensk Biblioteksforskning between the years 1989 to 2009. The journal containsboth peer reviewed articles, as well as articles of a more popular scientific kind. As guidance during the study, ahandful of questions were used.

The aim of this thesis is to examine Social science teachers infor-mation seeking in their professional role.The focus in this study has been on what sources the teachers use for information seeking, examine and analyze their information practices and how they state their reasons for using different in-formation sources, and finally how these teachers experience con-ditions related to information seeking and how these conditions in-fluence their information seeking.This study is based on four semi structured qualitative interviews. The empirical material from the interviews has been compared to earlier relevant research and analyzed with a theoretical frame-work, which includes conceptions from a sociocultural perspec-tive, a matrix over different kinds of information sources devel-oped by Höglund och Persson and McKenzie?s model of infor-mation practices.The results of this study are:- These teachers use both formal and informal sources and external and internal sources. Digital sources are important and these have consequently been added to Höglund och Persson?s original matrix from 1985.- Information practices tend to overlap each other, for example ac-tive seeking (more specific and prepared information seeking) and active scanning (less specific), which are the two most common information practices among the teachers.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how Braille users needs are satisfied by The Library of Talking Books and Braille TPB. The other issues are: How do some of the library workers at TPB experience that the needs of Braille users are satisfied? Is it possible to make the service better in the future for Braille users and in that case, how? The study is based upon interviews with five persons, who have defective vision and read Braille. I have also interviewed two employees at TPB who have defective vision. To build up a complete background presentation of the subject I have chosen a book about hermeneutic interpretation to understand how historic facts influence the function of the subject today and in the future.

The focus of the thesis is to examine the regional branding ofpublic libraries in Norrbotten, with the main focus on Piteå public library, in order to find trends that indicate a successful branding based on Hariff & Rowley?s (2011) identified key factors.The empirical data has been collected through a triangulation of interviews and documents. The findings show that they have done a proficient preparatory work prior to the regional branding of the public libraries, and that the libraries have worked together with a communication bureau in their marketing strategies since the beginning of the public library cooperation. The results also show that Piteå public library, through branding efforts, received another relationship with the media where the media now occasionally contact the library.The conclusion of the thesis is that Piteå public library promoted the library through campaigns that provide the opportunity for activities and experiences, and that they want to convey the image of itself as a venue for social interaction. The marketing of the libraries fulfill the most of the criteria, but there are still areas of branding that needs to be further explored..

Since the role of the libraries as merely a place for loans has decreased, the importance of giving the visitors a total experience has increased.The aim of my thesis was to investigate whether a change in the sound environment at the library of Jokkmokk could generate more satisfied visitors, whether they are borrowers or use the library for other purposes. The change in the sound environment was to be effected by means of a background sound experiment in the magazine room at the library. Action research was used as a research strategy and observations and interviews as method to collect data.The experiment was conducted with two selected sounds of nature: birdsong and a rippling brook. The observations and interviews were executeted in three stages: 1. Without any background sound.

Electronic availability of information resources has increasingly become an important part of academic libraries everyday vocation. This is a fact that puts impetus on the libraries to know more about the way in which electronic information is being dispersed and handled. This thesis aims to comparatively evaluate Uppsala university library´s own metadata system Summon with the publicly available equivalent Google scholar. The evaluation is based on Péter Jacsó´s theories on database evaluation which concretely puts focus on Summon and Google scholar via the use and application of ten different criteria. The uses of precision and relevance criteria were also implemented as additional evaluation tools.

The concepts of environmental scanning and Business Intelligence have gained increased interest over the last years in a number of different organisational contexts. The research in this field has mainly been dealing with methods and issues regarding organisation but the aim of environmental scanning, the forming of new perspectives, has been largely ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish joint-stock banks put environmental scanning and Business Intelligence into practice. First a literature study is made to create a background and to explain the different conceptions. Then I describe the different functions of the different services in Swedish joint-stock banks.

Public libraries have an important roll of making information accessible to all people. This democratic right supports the cultural development in our society. When public libraries build websites offering information and services it can sometimes cause obstacles for impaired users. It is therefore our purpose to evaluate a selection of websites and library plans to examine how the libraries work with accessibility for these users. This thesis is based on theories of cognitive and human computer interaction, and information architecture.

A study around some fourteen and fifteen year old boys, who are interested in reading. It is about their reading and library habits, what has created their interest and where they acquire access to literature. A certain amount deals with the habits of the boys? school-friends in this subject. The result compares with earlier made reports.

The study of culture is specifically relevant to libraries confronting changes. A variety of conditions makes it beneficial for libraries to understand the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the underlying culture. Such an understanding can help libraries in adjusting to changes easier, without losing the cultural values that they hold important to their identity and strategic strengths.Taking this as a starting point the purpose of this essay is to examine and describe what aspects in prevailing library cultures are important to pay attention to when meeting changes. To accomplish this we will explore the concept of library culture, its substance, meaning and expression.Culture is reflected in the artifacts, values and underlying assumptions of formal and informal groups. Culture can be found at various levels.

This is an explorative study about subject indexing of a special collection of books, administered by the John Andrén Foundation at the library of Ystad. The study summarises a number of theoretical perspectives as well as some practical instructions on how to carry out the task. Theories have been placed into five different groups according to their various approaches to subject indexing. These have been analysed in regard to their usefulness to the Andrén collection. The authors have tested and evaluated six practical models on a selection of books from the Andrén collection.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the female reader of science fiction literature, a genre by tradition dominated by men. Through qualitative interviews with seven female science fiction readers, the relation between the reading and the readers? lives, as well as their concepts of the science fiction genre and the community of science fiction readers, was examined. The main theoretical framework used for the analysis was Yvonne Hirdman?s gender theory, Judith Butler?s concept of identity and Louise M.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine why graduates in librarian- and information science are employed by private companies. An initial explanation could be the influence of information technology and its impact on the librarian. A second factor relates to how employers regard the librarian outside the confines of the traditional labour market. The study is primarily based upon qualitative interviews with representatives of Swedish companies who have employed librarians since 1993, the year that the education achieved third level academic recognition. Theoretically we relied upon Manuel Castells discussion on the rise of the information society and its influence on companies and the labour market.

This paper deals with how science teachers in the Swedish secondary school choose the content in the education they give to the pupils. What are the reasons for their choices and what do they think of the purpose of science in secondary school? Through interviewing science teachers the investigation shows that there are three different views of how to choose content in the science education: one focuses on the processes of science itself, one integrates the socio-cultural aspects and one emphasizes the interests of the pupils.