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 thesis was to look closer into the shelf arrangement and user behavior in a fiction collection with the municipal library in Lund as an example. The purpose was to investigate to what extent the shelf arrangement in this library is adapted to the behavior of users when it comes to searching for and choosing fiction. The study is mainly focused on the division between Hc- and Hce-classified books (Swedish fiction and fiction translated into Swedish), the special shelving of the publications of the last five years, and the genre categorization. The user behavior is primarily examined from the perspective of three search strategies; looking for a specific author or title, browsing within a genre or browsing without having a specific genre in mind. The study also deals with within which genres of fiction the users are searching and if they are looking for a book that is translated or not, new or older.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the characteristics of film cataloguing, and to compare general as in library use and specific as in archival use cataloguing rules. Most rules, both in archives and libraries, use the book as a point of reference. This is somewhat unfortunate on account of the great difference between books and films. The method used is studies of literature and qualitative interviews with three persons whose professional duties include cataloguing of films. The sets of rules which are studied are Katalogiseringsregler för svenska bibliotek KRS and The FIAF Cataloguing Rules for Film Archives.

This thesis presents and evaluates a project, undertaken in 2001 by a librarian the writer of this thesis and a teacher. We met with a number of adults with reading and writing disabilities, and presented and discussed books and experiences of reading, with the aim to increase their joy of reading, as well as finding out more about our own ways of co-operating with each other across our professional borders. The documentation and evaluation emphasizes on the process and the results of the project, and on our own participation, by asking the following questions: How did we carry out the project? What obstacles did we meet? What went well/wrong? What did we achieve related to our goals? In order to illuminate the project from different angles, consequences of reading and writing disabilities for adults are discussed, as well as the specific nature of adult education and projects more or less related to ours. Action research is chosen as a method, because it allows the process of the project, and our own learning process, to be exposed.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the meaning the reading group of the public library has to a number of users. To fulfill the aim the following three questions have been formulated: 1) What do a number of users expect from the reading group of the public library? 2) Which approach/attitude or approaches/attitudes do a number of users have to reading and to talking about reading? 3) How do a number of users experience the ongoing reading group?The research is founded on qualitative interviews with five users that take part in three different reading groups in public libraries. The theories that are used is the theory of three so called strategies - the pragmatic, the traditionalistic, the emancipatory ? and the theory of flow.

This report will focus on the folkhigh-school in its general form and the role of the libraries on these types of schools in particular. A library on folkhighschools have a tendency to be forgotten and ends up being somewhere in the middle of the libraryworld and the general educational organisations. The purpose of this essay is to examine and provide general views on the different roles that a library on a folkhighschool can have, as well as looking into the unique aspects of the type of school that a folkhighschool is in terms of influencing the libraries placed there. The methodology used in this study is qualitative. Interviews have been held on three different folkhighschools in south of Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis was to trace and discuss tendencies in the debate of the computerization of the libraries, in Swedish library press during the period of 1970-1999. The set-out was the issue of how the library journals, as representatives and mouthpieces of a by tradition humanistic profession, coped with a revolutionary innovation related to a field (data technology) which they hadn't any knowledge or even interest in. The examination included three Swedish library journals: Biblioteksbladet with connection to Sweden?s most established library organization (SAB); Bis which is founded upon a socialistic base and; DIK-forum rooted in the union. The analysis of the debate was partly based on three different sets of values related to data and systems development.

The purpose of this study was to show how two schools from a municipality in greater Stockholm work with a document called "likabehandlingsplan", literally ?plan for equal treatment?. This document is required by law in Swedish schools and a part of each municipality?s program. The goal of the study was to see how teachers and school principals view and work with the plan as a part of their work in preventing discrimination and offensive behavior, in particular in dealing with problems with bullying. The two schools? plans were compared for similarities and differences and how they chose to follow the municipality?s guidelines was examined.

The aim of this master thesis was to examine the European Commission's information resources from a user perspective in order to clarify the needs and circumstances of the search of EU-information among students at Örebro University. 41 students participated in a survey, and four of them was interviewed. On the basis of Pendelton- and Chatmans theories of information behaviour in small worlds, it were assumed that the students' education and citizenship in the European Union affected their needs and the search of EU information.The study showed that the students needs for EU-related information has increased, with the current education, but also been linked to earlier educations. The students Citizens need were mainly associated with elections such as the EMU-election, but also in some cases to a need of the general knowledge.A review of the European Commission's information resources were made with an emphasis on European Documentation Centre, EDC. The survey showed that most students used the EDC and the EU-databases that was made available by the European Commission through the EDC and the university library but were not aware that they used EDC.The survey also showed that students made use of familiar sources and resources when they searched the EU-information, such as the library's regular database list, the library catalogue and search engine on the internet are not requested of other resources.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) promotes the Ecosystem Approach (EA). In this thesis it is analyzed how the EA approach could be applied to regional management of coastal areas in Sweden. The aim of this report is to compare management for preserving biodiversity on a landscape level in two regional coastal areas in Uppsala and Västra Götaland respectively. In Uppsala, one of the plans consists of a previous nature reserve and in Västra Götaland, a Regional landscape strategy has been established. The ecosystem approach is used as a theoretical framework in this thesis.

This thesis is an evaluation of the campaign [The digitally curious] that is part of the regional marketing campaign Futurum.kom. Its purpose was to strengthen the library's role in society. The campaign includes Regionbibliotek Kalmar, Länsbibliotek Sydost and also 25 public libraries in Kronoberg, Kalmar and Blekinge. The campaign [The digitally curious] is one of several cluster campaigns targeting their marketing to a specific audience and aims to promote awareness of what libraries have to offer and provide information on digital media and services. The target group for the campaign is a man between 45-65 years old, who is interested in digital technology.

The transition from paper to electronic journals in induces a major change in academic libraries. The library must focus on customising the service to meet user needs in order to compete with other actors on the market. This situation entails the need for a marketing and management approach in library organisations. Linda Ashcroft has in previous research focused on marketing of electronic journals. She has stated the importance of simplifying the user environment of electronic journals and the importance of regaining control over electronic journals from publishers and vendors.

Rapid development in the realms of electronic publishing has had a profound impact on information services in general and the academic library in particular. Since mid 1990´s an increasingly number of scholarly journals and other information resources have been made available electronically. Electronic books are the newest electronic service in the hybrid library and can be seen as the third wave in the digital library. Although electronic books have for a long time existed as electronic texts such as digitalized classics or other texts in the public domain, it is not until recently that e-books have been distributed and packaged in a commercial form. As more e-book models are being developed, libraries are being forced to take e-books into consideration when planning their information services.The aim of this master thesis is to describe the first stage of implementation of the new electronic media, the electronic book or e-book, in Swedish academic libraries.

The purpose of this study is to the increase knowledge and understanding of the meeting between children with Arabian as native language and a Swedish school library. The study is made as a qualitative investigation built on interviews with eight-year-olds and eleven-year-olds. Only the childrens needs and views are considered. The study is centred on twelve key issues and aims to document the childrens thoughts and views of reading as well as their reading habits and their use of the school library. Through the childrens own words their evaluation of reading and literature, their abilities to assimilate the text and their de facto use of the books can be known.

This paper will portray the differences and similarities that exist between students whoattended the Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Borås.The study is based upon quantitative information gathered from a survey which wasdistributed to first-year students in Borås in the auturnn term 1994. A total of 77 studentsresponded to the survey.We also do a comparative study of the students at all the library programs in Sweden.This is partially based on the findings by a thesis prior to this one by the authorsSvalstedt and Österdahl.We found that the students in Borås differ mainly in their personal histories and backgrounds.When it comes to their attitudes towards the profession and educationalmatters they are similar. Further we found the same to be true in our comparison of thelibrary programs in total..