Close to the city center of Reykjavik lies the combined national- and university library of Iceland. Usually, these two types of institutions are separated. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the library in fact selects the new digital material to offer the users in Iceland, and if the combined mission creates any problems or conflicts.The investigation examines the planning and the content of the digital library, what user groups are addressed and how the organisation is held together despite the different missions. If cultural context in Iceland makes a difference for what is selected and offered to the users is also discussed.Six informants in strategic library positions dealing with the digital national- or university library, were interviewed. The answers have been analysed in light of the library&information literature on building and maintaining digital library collections and organizational and marketing theory.The main result of the study is that the informants do not see a conflict between the missions of the organisation, although traces of a struggle were found in some areas.

The aim of this Masters thesis is, partly, to examine the information needs of lesbians: what discernable information needs they have, how they seek information and which information sources they use. The purpose is also to examine what part fiction plays regarding the information needs mentioned above and how fiction indexing could improve retrieval. The study is conducted through ten qualitative interviews with lesbians as well as through textual analysis. The theoretical framework includes queer theory and theory concerning information needs and uses. The results indicate that lesbians have evident information needs that mostly concern identity.

During the changes of time, the stipulations for the existence of books and libraries also change. With technical advances come new possibilities, and the option to publish literature electronically is one of them. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to answer the question how the advantages and disadvantages of electronically published literature is described and constructed. To further deepen the analysis these questions were asked: What aims are the electronically published literature said to achieve? Why are the electronically published literature said to achieve these aims? And who are favoured/disfavoured by electronically published literature? The analyzed publications are four Swedish library related publications: Biblioteksbladet, Dik-forum, Ikoner and Nya Ciceron.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an idea about geography in literature and through the study of science fiction literature examine the ?future city?. With the perspective that the city is a social construction and through the use of discourse theory, I have tried to emphasize how the future city is a representation of cultural discourses and in what way geography in literature can be used to increase our understanding of urban places. My intention with this paper has also been to find a way to connect the fictional future city with today?s urban planning discussion about the future city.

This study focuses on the encounter between the academic librarian and the academic library user with a specific need for information. The aim of the study is to examine the process of mediation of information and to uncover any inherent problems or systemic inertia that may occur within that process.Special attention has been given to information-seeking behaviour in the digital age and the possibility of viewing information literacy as a meta-literacy. The difference between the surface web and the academic invis- ible web is also investigated. Empirical data was collected by the use of ethnographic fieldwork at the Karolin- ska Institutet University Library over a period of five weeks. The data is analysed using actor-network theory as a point of departure.

Ten years ago the public computers with Internet access were introduced in the public libraries. The purpose of the public computers was to give the possibility of searching information. Along with the Internet came also communication media like chat and e-mail. This type of communication was a new function for the libraries and the reactions among the librarians were mixed. It has been a source of big frustration and attempts to block it has not succeeded.

As more and more people gain access to broadband in their properties, the security threats get bigger. A lot more people also have computers that they carry home from work where they store important information concerning the company. The information stored on theese computers can be very easy to retrieve if you have the will and the skill to do it. Very few people have any knowledge how to protect themselves from theese threats..

The aim with this Masters thesis is to examine the professional knowledge of the librarian. The method used is text analysis of a state public investigation, SOU 1969:37, that concerns librarian education. The theoretical starting point is a theory of knowledge thats descended from Aristotle. Three different forms of knowledge are central concepts in the theory: the theoretical, the practical and the ethical. The main issue in this thesis is: In what ways did the investigators look at the librarians knowledge? Was it in a changeable period of time? In that case, what reasons could there be? The conclusion shows that educational political changes were affecting the whole educational sphere at the late 1960:s, and in the beginning of the 1970:s, including library education.

In the digital era, new services have entered the public libraries, like seeking information on the Internet, in databases, newspapers online etc. But many citizens do not know that these services exist. The libraries have a democratic responsibility to inform about them. In the county of Östergötland a project started in 2001 where libraries in five small municipalities built websites in which they present all their electronic services available. One of the aims was with the help of different kinds of marketing to reach special groups of people, like adult students, small companies and politicians.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate the reasons for public libraries to have story-time today and also the reasons for story-time at the public library historically in Sweden. Why is the phenomenon of story-time still existing at public libraries today? The study is based on a questionnaire that was sent to childrens librarians in the Västra Götaland region. The material collected in this questionnaire was put together and resulted in six different categories showing the libraries purposes and thoughts of their story-time activities. The categories were: cultural heritage/tradition, joy of reading, language and imagination, library visits, storytelling and mutual experience.

Information technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. The Web is an important part of this development, however, web pages can be inaccessible to many groups of users. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the accessibility of Swedish public library websites. Besides examining the general accessibility, this study also covers whether any specific aspect of accessibility is particularly poor and if so which groups may be affected. In addition, this study also examines whether a correlation can be found between the degree of accessibility and the size of the website.

This master thesis investigates the user education. Christine Bruce has presented a theory of information literacy in her research which has resulted in seven different aspects of information literacy. In this study I wanted to investigate what aspects there were and what they looked like in a practical educational situation. The methods used for this study were observation and a questionnaire. I analysed the observations by using Bruces aspects of information literacy to group the observed activities into the different aspects.

The aim of this study is to examine the services offered by the public libraries in the context of distance learning students. I wanted to examine if there has been any discussion among the public libraries on how the new needs and demands affect them. To get a premonition on the development in Sweden I have focused on the public libraries in the province of Blekinge, which in many ways can be looked upon as precursors. Interviews have taken place with the distance learning students contacts at the local public libraries, the responsible librarian and a distance learning organiser at the local university college, the county library consultant and one of the chief librarians. I have reached the conclusion that no thorough discussion on the far-reaching aspects has taken place.

During 2001-2002 a prototype, IMIS (Integrated Mobile Information System) was developed at BTH (Blekinge University of Technology) to demonstrate how mobile IT-systems can be used in healthcare. The prototype was based on the activity theory of Engeström. An ongoing project started in spring 2003. The purpose of the project is further development of IMIS with special focus in the diabetes healthcare. Participants in the project are scientists and students at BTH, ALMI Företagspartner, Blekinge FoU-enhet, Barndiabetesförbundet Blekinge, Blekinge Diabetesförening, Vårdcentralen Ronneby and Vårdcentralen Sölvesborg.