This thesis presents a new way of providing Library users with reference services, namely chat (text based digital reference service in real time). Our research questions focus on the role of reference service, a comparison of chat reference to other reference forms, and the interest for real-time, digital reference. Our literature review covered the areas of digital reference and reference theory, the results of which showed that an ongoing debate hardly exists among Swedish librarians on the topic of reference work. We interviewed librarians from the three different Swedish chat reference projects existing at the time of our study. Most interviewees were very positive about chat reference.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to investigate how one independent senior high school without a school library regards the role of school libraries. (What is their view of information literacy? Do they manage to reach the goals of Lpf 94 and the goals of each school subject without a school library of their own?). We have chosen to interview the principal and two teachers. Our major findings are that the public library in our study has been given the role of a school library, a role we think it can not fulfil.

The purpose of this paper is to describe methods to computerize a library and to compare theory with a process in a school library. The case study is based on a school library called Sunnerbogymnasiet which is situated in Ljungby. My questions are;- Which methods are parts of the process to computerize a library?- Which methods are used in the process in Sunnerbogymnasiet?- What does the practical process look like compared to the methods described in theory?In the paper I present the methods in the process according to the studied literature and compare these with a process at Sunnerbogymnasiet. The most significant result is that cooperation between the school library and the community library was the most important reason for the choice of library computer system.

This is a two years master?s thesis that studies five libraries. The purpose with the paper was to look at a specific material and study how it expresses itself around the architecture of the buildings, an if the descriptions were different depending on the library, public library or university library. The conclusion is that the ways of describing the library buildings have varied; depending on one part time and one part evolution. The way library buildings look and have been used has changed over time also, and as well how people perceive and talk, or in this case write about them..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine librarians attitudes and values when it comes to the question if a new media, video games, should be introduced at the library or not. Video games are here seen as media primarily for youths. In our study we also wanted to study the discussions of quality and purchase, when computer games were introduced at the library. In order to answer our questions we conducted nine interviews with librarians working with children and youths, in eight libraries. By analysing their statements, using Maj Klassons theory where she defines the librarians role in three different strategies, we could demonstrate how the librarians reason when it comes to video and computer games, youths, quality and purchase.

This master?s thesis seeks to examine how a public library use the intranet with regards to the possibilities that today?s intranet technology offer ? especially concerning functionalities that support information, communication and knowledge exchange in the organization. The purpose of the study is to investigate how employees in one specific public library perceive and use the intranet in their daily work. The theoretical framework takes its point of departure in two complementing models regarding the implementation, development and management of intranets and a model of a multi perspective view of the intranet as a shared information space for content, communication and collaboration. The study is based on interviews with eleven of the intranet users, whom with the aid of an interview guide have been asked questions regarding goals, implementation, content, design, applications and advantages/disadvantages with the intranet.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how librarians view marketing of the library using social media and how this can be used in a marketing strategy. The theoretical framework for this thesis is based on the 7 Ps of the marketing mix, SWOT-analysis and SWOT/TOWS Matrix. The theory is based on planned elements that make up a product or service offered the market. We have used our own interpretation of the theories to analyse our material. Our main method has been a web-based questionnaire, the questionnaire was sent to 523 librarians active at ten large public libraries and its related branches.

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and perceptions of children`s librarians regarding floating collections in public libraries in Gothenburg. In focus for the study are the experiences and perceptions that exist among children`s librarians when it comes to children as Library users, the librarian`s working tasks and the professional role as a librarian. The empirical material has been collected through semistructured interviews with six children`s librarians. The material has been analyzed twice. The first analysis has been conducted through qualitative content analysis.

This Master?s thesis is the first to quantitatively study the prevalence of library anxiety at a Swedish university. Library anxiety is a concept describing the negative feelings students can experience when using the library. The study was conducted using web questionnaires sent out to 512 students at Växjö university. 38 % responded and the results were analysed with the help of, amongst other methods, correlation studies.

The aim of this master's thesis is to study how gender equity is discussed and worked with at a Swedish public library, and what potential consequences these discussions will bring. By analysing different types of documents and interviews with library staff using discourse psychological theories and methods we show that two dominating discourses coexist and determine the direction of how gender equity is discussed. These discourses are argued to create and uphold gender and gender roles within the organisation as well as in society at large.In our study we find that one of the identified discourses has, as one of its consequences, that it preserves and regenerates traditional gender roles. This discourse is mainly used when discussing personnel policies and when recruiting. We call this the discourse of gender role preservation.The second discourse is mainly seen when discussing the public dimension of the library's functions.

The focus of this thesis is to examine posts on library?s Facebook pages and to investigate possible connections between posts and user response. The study examines posts published from thirty different libraries Facebook pages over a two week period to examine if any correlation between different subjects or types of posts affects the degree and type of response from the users.The findings show that photos stand for the majority of the published post concerning its type and that activities at the library was the most common subject of posts. After using eta as measure of association a tenuous connection between degree of response and the posts subject and between the degree of response and the type of post was found. The standard deviation, however, was high in the majority of the variables used.

The digital era has led to technical advances that have transformed the role of the public library from being a place that is used only through physical visits and material, into also being a virtual space that can be accessed by users from outside the library through Internet-based access to e-media such as e-books and streamed or downloadable audiobooks.The aim of this study is to examine how the role of public libraries in Stockholm County has changed in the process of developing into digital libraries: how this has affected their organisation, work methods and strate- gies, as well as their accessibility. The theoretical framework of the study draws on Michael K. Bucklands theory of information accessibility, which is based on six factors of access that are determined by different types of barriers. The methodology is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Primary data was gathered through an empirical survey, which consisted of a structured questionnaire distributed to most of the public libraries in Stockholm County and semi-structured interviews with selected librarians and experts for further in-depth understanding.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how librarians in a Swedish public library view and discuss mediation of fiction. The questions posed in this study are: How do the librarians want to work with mediation of fiction? What type of literature should be provided according to them? How do they express that they relate and should relate to their users? The theoretical starting-points are three categories extracted from Jofrid Karner Smidt?s doctor?s dissertation Mellom elite og publikum: the approach to users, strategies for mediation, and ideals for mediation. The empirical material was gathered through focus group interviews with librarians in a public library.

The main purpose of our thesis is to discuss the subject e-books from a Swedish public library perspective. The aim of the thesis is to locate and analyse statistics in regards to lending electronic books in public libraries. With this background a text analyse have been done, which views different arguments about e-books. We have studied the current statistics about lending e-books to the public users, the statistic material was gathered from the two main providers of e-books, eLib and E-biblioteket. With this statistic report as a background, arguments from scientists, journalists and users of e-books have been studied.

In this Masters thesis the image of the public library in the local press and in the eyes of the public is examined. The questions posed to examine this are: - What activities of the public library are described in the local press? - What activities does the public associate with the public library? - What functions and roles of the public library can be found in the articles and interviews and how are they expressed? - What opinions of the public library and hereto related activities can be found in the articles and interviews? This study is based on an analysis of 127 articles, published in Borås Tidning during a period of six months, and of interviews with 35 people from Sjuhäradsbygden. To analyse the articles and the interviews Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen´s model of roles for the library has been used. The model includes four roles for the library: the library as a cultural centre, a knowledge centre, an information centre and a social centre.