The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to examine how user-friendly the OPAC of the Märsta public library is considered to be.Theoretical basis are HCI and Allwoods definition of usability. Issues are: Is the OPAC suited to its task? Is the OPAC user-friendly? How well does a user accept the OPAC? and What degree of competence is shown by users of the OPAC? The source material consists of six interviews in the form of .avi files. The method I have chosen is qualitative semi-structured interview form. The result is that, based on Carl Martin Allwood?s defini-tion and with exception for the using of help-resources, the usability of Märsta?s library OPAC can be considered less good..

The aim of this Master thesis is to delineate the ideology behind the public library politics in Gothenburg, during 1945-50. The study is an archive survey. To be able to account for the public library politics in Gothenburg during the period, the author has studied documents in the archive of the public library board in Gothenburg. The description of the politics is the source for the research papers analysis. The thesis principal issue, is on what ideological basis the public library politics has been formulated in Gothenburg, during the period of interest? The concept of ideology is defined as a coherent system of norms and values.

The object of this paper is to examine the marketing of PUNKTmedis, a youth library. In order to do so we have looked at two different perspectives; how the library has marketed itself towards its target group, and how young people perceive what PUNKTmedis has to offer. The thesis? foundation is a case study. Since the question at hand concerns the library?s intentions with and execution of its marketing efforts, as well as the target group?s opinion of them, the empirical data is based partially on an interview with the head of marketing at PUNKTmedis, and partially on a target group questionnaire.

The aim of this essay is to investigate how national and international guidelines relate to library services to prisoners in Sweden and to further illuminate this through a comparison with some examples from a few European countries. The essay examines what rights to library services Swedish prisoners are given in law, what national and international guidelines say, what demands are placed on the librarian in the form of education and suitability, what economical resources exist to realise library services to prisoners, what measures are taken to provide for language minorities, and how the security aspect is handled when it comes to computers and information technologies. The information has been obtained through interviews as well as through studies of books, articles and conference proceedings. The essay includes a small case study of how library services are provided for prisoners in Haparanda. Findings point to a gap between the goals that are presented in national and international guidelines and how the library services to prisoners function in reality..

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ancient library organisation in the Mediterranean area. The focus of the study is if they used catalogues, marked their material and their methods for shelving. During the ancient period the people used to write on clay tablets, parchment- or papyrusrolls and codex, which was significant for the organisation. The method, which I use, for the examination is based on criticism of the sources, how the modern scholars has interpreted ancient remains and texts. The study shows that the first evidence for library organisation is from Mesopotamia 2350 BC.

The aim of this study was to examine how children in ages 3 to 4 use the public library with the research questions: What does children?s, in ages between 3 and 4, information behavior look like when they visit a public library in leisure time with a parent? What is the nature of interaction between child and parent, child and the staff of the library, and between child and other visitors? What is the function of the cultural tools in relation to the children?s information behavior? The theoretical frame of reference consisted of Lev Vygotsky?s ?the zone of proximal development? and Roger Säljö?s theory about using cultural tools. To answer the questions I have observed 4 children together with their mothers and siblings at a public library. From the result of the observations I found that every child had their own information behavior. Two of the children only used one kind of cultural tool ? books.

The purpose of this paper is to examine different attitudes regarding freedom of information and how libraries should fulfil their information-task represented by four organisations. The organisations are important in shaping the Swedish public libraries in different ways. The purpose is to examine in what ways their definition of information freedom may differ from one another and what that means in defining the public library. For the survey the qualitative textual analysis has been used for examining the documents and websites that are part of the debate about the public library and information freedom. We chose to interview representatives of four organisations that in different ways influence the shaping of the public library.

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 purpose of this master thesis is to investigate if and how the school library in Linnéskolan in Älmhult is working towards the learning goals that can be find in the different school documents that are represented by the municipality of Älmhult. This includes goals for the school, for the school library and for the subject of social studies in the ninth grade. We also want to investigate if the school library helps the students to reach the learning goals and if there are any factors that can be improved in the school library. We have used an evidence based approach to define factors in the school library that can be improved. In the chapter that describes our theoretical approach, we have also discussed three different pedagogical theories; teacher-centered teaching, individual constructivism and social constructivism.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the societysystem in Austria has influenced the library system. The aim is toanalyse in what way these influences have changed during thegrowth and development of the public library system and how it isdisplayed in each separate library branch. The focus of myinvestigation has been the municipality public libraries in Vienna,and mainly the three libraries in the third district of the city. Themethod I have used is literature studies, examining and analysingsource material from the internal archive of the public libraries inVienna. I have also used the qualitative interview method in orderto examine the situation in the selected libraries Rabengasse,Erdbergstraße and Fasangasse.As there is no common library law, there are significantdifferences in the library structure in different parts of Austria andeach municipality decides how they want to prioritize the libraries.Since the public libraries of Vienna are well organized together inBüchereien Wien, the library structure in the separate librarybranches is coordinated.

The aim of this study is to look at censorship and attempted censorship of books about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) people in public libraries in the USA. People from the public can submit formal challenges to a book at the library when they find the material offensive which can lead to those books being taken away from the library shelves. The questions asked are why GLBT- literature is being challenged, and sometimes banned, and how do the libraries deal with the challenges to the books.It is nowadays the people from the public, rather than the government or the librarians that are behind many cases of removal of books with homosexual themes. The study presents some of the fictional GLBT- literature that has been cause for much controversy in the USA. All the five examples mentioned are children?s books concerning GLBT- themes and are among the most challenged books in American libraries in the past twenty years.

For a school library to function as a support for the students? development of their academic abilities, it must provide material satisfying their needs as well as the needs of the teachers. The school library should assist the students in their research endeavours, as well as inspire reading for pleasure. In order to do this it is imperative that the school library actively develops the existing collection and continually strives to meet the needs of its users. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to describe and reflect upon how a particular school library works with collection development.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how a person?s library use and reading can change with time. It also examines how different factors in a person?s context or in the life situation can affect these activities. The analysis is based upon qualitative interviews with three persons, two women and one man between 67 and 69 years of age.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate how students at an upper secondary school for adults use school and public library when searching for information for school assignments. The focus in this investigation is on the feelings and experiences of the process of the information seeking and use. The focus is also on the students experiences of school and public libraries and the help they receive from them in learning. The method used is focus groups interviews. Two groups were interviewed.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the accessibility in public libraries for persons with dyslexia and visually impaired persons. In order to do this, library services, information and attitudes have been studied. Data have been collected through interviews and studies of documents, in particular guidelines for library service to disabled persons. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is Professor Michael Bucklands different aspects of access to information. He discusses six types of barriers that must be overcome if access is to be achieved.