The purpose of this thesis is to describe how principals apprehend the school library. In order to respond to this I formulated three questions: How was the improvement of the school libraries carried out in one municipality? Is the school library experienced as a part of the schools organization? How is the use of the school´s library experienced? To be able to answer these questions, for the purpose of this thesis, I have studied relevant literature on school libraries, the school organization and literature on qualitative methods. I have made six qualitative interviews. The objects of the interviews were three librarians and three principals.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to study opinions about the Swedish hospital libraries and their activities for the patients, in a selection of Swedish library journal articles. The theoretical starting point is grounded in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory. The empirical material consists of 43 articles from three library journals; Biblioteksbladet, Blänkaren and DIK-forum, published between 1990 and 2004. These are analysed through a reading scheme in four levels. In the empirical material two themes appear; the culture theme and the patient information theme.

The aim of this essay is to examine fan culture?s role in Swedish public libraries. I have interviewed, via email, six librarians who encounter and use fan culture in their daily work. The theoretical elements of my essay are based on a modified set of theories by Dorte Skot-Hansen that identifies six ideal types of cultural political rationalities. My study reveals that fan culture is used in Swedish libraries as a tool in increasing user participation in library activities.

The aim with this Master's thesis is to study the debate that takes place in the local community when a public library branch is threatened by closedown through the local newspapers. Through this it is our aim to understand why the debate takes place, and why so many people gets concerned with it. By relating this debate to contemporary research of library- and information science, and the discussion in three major Swedish library journals, we have found the answers to these questions. By studying the debate, we found six subjects that where essential for this study. These were Politics and economics, Urban and rural districts, Democracy and accessibility, The service of the library, The meeting place and To replace a closed down library.

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school library which means that they use the public library instead.

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school library which means that they use the public library instead.

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.

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

The aim with this study was to examine which information sources are used by the librarians in the process of changing automated library system and why. Furthermore it was of interest to examine whether there are any correlations between variables environment, information quality, information availability, information need and information sources. I used a quantitative method that was carried out in form of a nationwide survey. Questionnaires were sent out to all the Swedish libraries that had change library systems sometime between the years 2000.

The subject of this thesis is studying how physical libraryenvironments express ideas on the function of the library, asstated in guiding documents. The ?physical library? isdefined as everything inside the library building, andexcludes the library architecture, focusing on things likefurniture, furnishing and the arrangement of physical media.The two questions asked in this thesis are: What aspects ofthe idea of a public library?s function, as expressed in theguiding documents of the library, are possible to study in thephysical library environment? In what ways can theseaspects be studied in the physical library environment?The study of the thesis is divided into two parts, a ?prestudy?and a ?main study?. In the pre-study aspects areidentified by reading guiding documents from differentpublic libraries, and analysing the result together withprevious studies on physical library environments. In themain study three Swedish public libraries (located inHelsingborg, Åstorp and Klippan) are visited, and theirenvironments are studied based on theory on what items andmeans of expression can influence the experience of thelibrary function.The four aspects that are identified in the pre-study areculture, education, accessibility, and development.According to the results of the main study, culture isexpressed in the library environment through aesthetics,education through the environment being inviting andstimulating for studies, accessibility by the environmentbeing inviting, functional and democratic, and developmentby modernity.

The living library started in Denmark at the festival of Roskilde in 2000. It was initiated by the youth organisation ?Stop volden? (?Stop the violence?). Since 2005 the idea of lending a human being who represents a prejudice has also become a practice in a few public libraries in Sweden. I found it interesting to analyse the living library in relation to the mission of diversity in the public library.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how students who study with Problem-based learning PBL in a distance learning course perceive the support from the university library. I first went into adult education, PBL and distance studies, one at a time, and then took a look at the combination of problem-based learning in distance studies. During the investigation, I conducted five interviews using a phenomenographic method to understand how the students perceived the support they received from the university library. The university library gives a lot of support but what I noticed while I was writing was that it is difficult to reach the students with the information regarding the help that is available to them. I give some example on how to develop the support and find that the students have a wide range of different needs for support from the library depending on their individual situation, social context, academic ability, location and course of study.

The aim of this Master thesis is to study the public libraries' function as a place for people to meet. Four major questions are taken up: + Do the public libraries have the function of a meeting place? + How important do the librarians and the visitors find the libraries possible function as a meeting place? Do they think that this function is important? + What differs the public libraries from other places in society when it comes to the function of a meeting place? + What differences are there between a larger and a smaller library when it comes to the function of a meeting place ? The basis of this study are interviews with employees at a province library in Jönköping and at a smaller library in Sjöbo in Borås municipality. Our study deals with the history of public libraries, its functions as a meeting place, its architecture, culture, and statistics concerning numbers of visitors and loans of books. The conclusions that are drawn are that the public libraries have qualifications to function as a meeting place even if that isn't always the case.

The purpose of this Master Thesis is to investigate the quality of the library service at the City Library of Uddevalla. In particular this thesis will examine the quality of the library service to people who are disabled. This applies particularly to the service to people with reduced ability to move or to see, which also includes people with infirmities due to old age. We also have investigated how well the library itself is adapted to the disabled. In order to get more information about the library service to people who are disabled, we have studied literature on this subject and the Master Thesis contains a summary of those documents.

This essay investigates the integration of the school library into teaching in one of Sweden?s senior high schools and the effects of the new education act which gives school libraries a stronger standing. A second purpose is to investigate teachers? views on professional responsibility with regard to the development of information literacy. Through an email survey different aspects of library integration are investigated.