Information overload is by no means a new concept, but has come to prominence the last decade. A generally accepted definition of the phenomenon does not exist. The main question in this master thesis is how to define information overload in order to create a connotative concept for information science. This thesis reviews the nature and causes of information overload, and considers possible solutions, both individual and technical, and their relevance to the information professional. The review of the results shows that researchers seldom or never give a legible definition of what the concept information holds.

 This bachelor?s thesis purpose is to examine how library staff experiences the meeting with non-Swedish speaking users of public libraries, and how they solve different situations. Today there is not much research on this subject but we find these questions important to study because we think it is good to be aware of the situations that can arise and discuss how to solve any problems. To have a basis for this qualitative study we conducted group interviews with library staff, where they are asked about their experiences with non-Swedish speaking users. In the analysis the results of the interviews are compared to previous research and related to communication theory, which is the theoretical framework for this study.

The public libraries in Sweden has an obligation to serve all of its citizens, but despite of this they often fail to include their LGBTQ-patrons. Since the year of 2008 RFSL (the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) have arranged a specially designed certification-process based on normcritical criterias that a chosen institution should fulfill to make their work more inclusive for LGBTQ-people. Sollentuna is the first municipal in Sweden to certificate all of their libraries. This study aims to examine what the certification have meant for the public library in Sollentuna and how a normcritical view can contribute to include LGBTQ-patrons at the library. As a method we used a qualitative interview-study to get a full picture of the certification-process and its influence on the public library of Sollentuna.

This thesis explores the opinion of different participants in the music business regarding music being made available at the public libraries. The aim of the thesis is to answer the following questions; which are the most important issues concerning the distribution of music? How do the informants perceive the public libraries mission and activity in regard to make recorded music available? Which are the benefits/disadvantages with music being made available at public libraries? Seven qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the following organisations; SKAP (The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers), FST (Society of Swedish Composers), SAMI (Swedish Artists and Musicians Interest Organisation) SMF (The Swedish Society of Musicians), SOM (Swedish Independent Musicproducers), IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) and EMI Music Sweden. A study of literature and articles generated nine themes, which constitutes the frame of reference for the thesis. The result shows that several of the informants have not reflected upon the public library as an important actor when it comes to the distribution of music.

This thesis is a study of Parties as an outflow of societal changes where the aim has been to find out how parties are affected by societal changes and how they justify to new party formation. This is done by using a theory called Parties as an outflow of societal changes which is a theory developed by Swedish researchers in Political Science. To confirm the theory it is necessary to do an argumentation analysis of one external developed party?s electoral program. In this case the party selected is Feminist Initiative which brings a different view on how the society of Sweden should look like.Selected parts of the argumentative analysis will be examined with the purpose to give a perspective on how Feminist Initiative values the changes in society and how they describe their role as a new party.The main question of this study is; Are new parties an outflow of societal changes? The basic arguments includes that along with societal changes in Western Europe also changes the view of a representative democracy in which political parties play a central role.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how novices set about when they search for information. Marchionini's information-seeking model is the theoretical starting point, which is supplemented by theories of other specialists within the field, such as Chowdhury; Harter; Large, Tedd and Hartley. As method a questionnaire survey was used. The questionnaire was sent to 96 students at IHM Business School in Gothenburg and 57 questionnaires were returned. The results show among other things that the majority of the students used highly interactive search strategies, and they did not plan their search before they carried out the search.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether the term elasticity is relevant and functional to apply to public library organisations. Another aim of the thesis is to relate the term elasticity to public library organisations in a network society. Sociologist Manuel Castells provide the theoretical framework on the network society. Three investigations (meant to complement each other) in two Swedish public libraries seek to give answers to these questions.To be able to examine which areas of public library activity are elastic, I make a rough definition of what public library organisations consist of ? nine activity fields are identified using IFLA?s guidelines in combination with Swedish law of public libraries.

We were interested in catalogers as human beings and in their reaction to a changed working situation. In the light of the changes which have been made at the libraries during the nineties, we investigated why the very group catalogers reacted with an intense and engaged open debate at the same time as librarians with special competence didn t seem to react in this way. The open debate about the catalogers changed working conditions was held in Sweden, above all at BIBLIST, which is a forum for library-connected questions. This forum uses an email list made particularly for librarians. The situation of the librarians was, to a small extent, also discussed in publications made for the library line of business.

The aim with this thesis, based on five childrens librarians statements, is to highlight their view of their work, and what they deem to be of importance when working with small children within the library sphere. My main question is as follows: What motive compels childrens librarians in their work with small children, and will Vygotskys theories be recognised in their statements. I have two questions as a base for this main question: How do childrens librarians work with small children, and do they utilise any special methods in their work? How do childrens librarians view their work tasks, and what do they deem to be of importance regarding small children and libraries? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews. As a theory I have decided to concentrate on Vygotskys thoughts on imagination and creativity, the Zone of Proximal Development, and childrens language development.

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.

A general topic underlying this master thesis is how the public library is being transformed through the subversion and re-articualtion of meaning according to different discourses. The aim of the study can be divided in to levels of analysis. At the first level, the aim is to investigate how categories such as users, needs and vision are articulated in a specific case ?the visionary project Garaget in Malmö, a project which in part include a public library inspired by Idea Store. The next level of analysis sets out to explore how the case of Garaget is related to a totalizing discursive struggle over meaning within the element the public library.

The subject of this Master?s thesis is the process of change in a public library context, the implementation of the Stockholm City Library?s homepage Biblioteket.se. The aim is to examine the factors that influence this particular change and how they affect the process and extent of change in practice. The study designed as a qualitative case study is based primarily on document analysis, and supplemented by an interview. DiMaggio?s and Powell?s three mechanisms of change; coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism, is applied.

Open source is growing outside the boundaries of hackers, amateurs and software development, creating a humongous potential in many different areas and aspects of society. The intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drives open source have been in the subject of much research recently, but how they affect each other when paid and unpaid contributors come together is still hidden in obscurity. In this study I investigate how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation correlates with each other and how those correlations affect paid and unpaid open source software contributors. The literature synthesis is based on of systematic reviews through searches in library databases, identification of articles by searching on the Internet and by reading relevant books. My results indicate that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations continuously affect each other and that paid contributors are more vulnerable since their extrinsic motivation in terms of money is reached only when many other motivations are fulfilled.

The purpose of this work has been to understand the reading group from the perspective of the society. The studyhas taken place in the city of Västerås and the results can thus not be used in a more generalized sence. Byfocusstudies conducted with members from four different reading groups connected in different ways to the libraryin Västerås I have reached the following conclusions.According to Jürgen Habermas theories the reading groups, with their ideals regarding education and meetingswhere everybody are equals, belong in the part of the public sphere that he calls literary. There are someconnections to the political sphere, for exempel the down to earth quality of the literature that is the choice ofthe groups and their way of discussing it.One problem that occures when one tries to apply Habermas idéas regarding the public sphere on readinggroups is that the criteria Habermas considers as vital to sphere for it to work properly does not seem to workon the reading groups. Inclusion, eqality and freedom of subjects are necessary to create a public sphere.

Detta kandidatarbete utgår ifrån vilka aspekter som är viktiga att tänka på när man anpassar av en webbsida till en mobil enhet och de problem som uppstår när en webbsida skalas ner till en låg skärmupplösning. Vi har behandlat användarvänlighet, designprinciper, grafiska element och tekniska aspekter för att svara på problemformuleringen. Slutsatsen vi kommit fram till är ett antal punkter inom områdena ovan..