The main purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine gender division in public libraries by reviewing literature and interviewing eight public librarians and two chief librarians. The reason why we decided to investigate this topic is the lack of research concerning sex-segregation in library and information science. By choosing this subject we intend to deepen the understanding of the significance of gender both within the public library and of the occupation in general. Some researchers claim that the low status of librarianship is a result of the large proportion of women in the profession. We want to find out how our informants view the relation between professional status and female domination.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the understanding of children's librari-ans regarding children's needs and preconditions in a library context and based on devel-opmental psychology and information seeking theories. The children's perspective is said to be the guiding star in the children's library and the thesis also aims to study the chil-dren's perspective as defined by children's librarians.The master thesis is a qualitative study based on interviews with children's librarians working at major public libraries. Observations of the children's libraries in the study have to some extent been performed.The study reveals that children's librarians are fairly knowledgeable about children but do not to a full extent use that knowledge into adapting the library to children and their needs. The children are not contributing to the adaptation of the library to any extent as there are few routines for that matter. In society in general children are on a regular basis represented by adults and their perspective on children and children's needs, which may differ from the perspective children have on their own lives, and the same is applicable for the children's library.

The purpose of this Master's thesis was to examine how and what trainee teachers are being taught about information seeking and school libraries related to problem-based teaching method in compulsory school. The questions at issue were: How have trainee teachers learned about information seeking? How have trainee teachers learned about using school libraries? We also wanted to know which education they have got in information seeking and school libraries. We examined this through both literature and empirical studies. We used a qualitative method in order to answer the questions at issue.

The purpose of this study was to discover patterns and variations of service requirementsamong various groups of users at the Swedish Academy's Nobel Library. Twenty-nine personswere interviewed and divided into different groups with regard to their purpose of usingthe Nobel Library. The groups of users were members of the Swedish Academy and thepublic. The public were subdivided into the following three groups of users: persons whopursue formalised studies, persons who read as a hobby, persons who work with literature asa profession.The data reveals that the members of the Swedish Academy were very satisfied with theservice at their library and positive to a limited increase of users. Persons who pursue formalisedstudies and persons who work with literature as a profession emphasized that the NobelLibrary is outstanding within its subject field.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how some university students, who are using the libraries extensively, use and experience the public and the university library and what they expect from the two different library types. I also compare their expectations with the different tasks and aims of the two library types. To answer this I have interviewed seven students at the department of history of literature at Göteborg University. I have also studied some literature and research related to this subject, for example user studies about students and libraries and the information behaviour of distance students.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the points of view of three groups of actors about their local learning center and its collaboration with the library. By interviewing groups of actors from the municipal sector, the library staff and students, I aim to investigate their associations of the learning centre, what kind of services it should offer, and how they understand the role of the library staff in specific collaboration between the public library and the adult education administration. The study design is based on Gunnar Grepperud?s and Terje Thomsen?s three missions for a local learning centre; the mission of a broker, a meeting place and a motivator. I also use Carol Kuhlthau?s levels of mediation as an approach to investigate how the actors want the library staff to work in relation to the centre.

This Masters thesis aims at presenting a picture of, and critically examining, the Swedish debate concerning the public library and the future by way of 21 articles in three library periodicals. The questions examined are: -What are the views concerning the future public library in Swedish library press? -What characterizes the debate and why? Theories on political institutions and information society are used and the method is hermeneutic, a type of idea-analysis. The first step in the analysis consists of a categorized presentation of the material. The themes concern the form and content of the library as well as competence and hopes/fears.

This study is about information needs and library habits among newly retired people. The purpose of this master thesis is to examine the affective and cognitive needs that come with retirement. In what way do the information needs of this group change due to retirement? In order to answer this question we make use of two theoretical models; Role theory and Wilson?s model of information needs. When it comes to library habits, we use Andersson and Skot-Hansens model to examine how newly retired people use the library now and how they could use it on basis of their needs in their new role.

The purpose of this bachelor?s thesis is to evaluate how the marketing campaign ?Låna dig rik? has been received by the residents of Kalmar. A series of questions are asked: was the campaign noticed by the residents of Kalmar? Through which marketing channels has it been noticed? Is the residents? opinion of the library in line with the marketing message? Is the campaign moving in the desired direction?The study was done through a questionnaire that was handed out to a number of people in Kalmar. The residents were asked to answer if they had noticed the campaign, where they had noticed it and what their opinion of the library was.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether there is a connection between distance to the schoollibrary and the extent to which teachers are using it as an integral part of their teaching. The study aims to answerif the physical distance to the school library is affecting teachers' ways of working with the library, if it affects thecollaboration between teachers and librarians and finally if teachers that are using a school library outside theschool premises are doing so less as an integral part of their teaching compared to teachers that have access to aschool library within the schools premises.The study is based on qualitative interviews with six teachers in the intermediate stage of the nine-yearcompulsory school, of which three have access to a school library within the school premises and three haveaccess to a school library outside the school premises. The two groups of teachers are compared in order to findout if there is a connection between distance to the school library and the usage of it. Loertscher's school librarymedia program and teacher taxonomy have been used as a theoretical framework.The study shows that the teachers who use a school library within the school premises have a bettercollaboration with the librarians than the ones who use a school library outside the school premises. The studyalso show that theese libraries are an integral part of the teaching to a higher degree.

The aim of this thesis is to study the effects of self-service on professional qualifications of library assistants in three public libraries in Sweden. The research questions are: - How do the library assistants experience that their professional qualifications have changed since self-service was introduced at the library? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between library managers and library assistants? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between the three different libraries? The method used is qualitative interviews with six library assistants and three head of libraries from three different public libraries. The theoretical framework for this study is constructed by theoretical ideas about professional qualifications and technology's impact on professionalism. The results indicate that the cognitive qualifications of library assistants have increased and social qualifications both increased and decreased.

The general view of learning has dramatically changed during the last two decades. Today we talk about learning for life and educate to meet the demands of the information society. This new view forces us to constantly relearn and develop new knowledge ? something which has resulted in large restructuring within the upper secondary school. New forms of teaching, where the pupils are given the opportunity to a more active search for knowledge, is developing.

The topic of this essay is information seeking for children and young people in municipal libraries. This is based in the growing need for information seeking skills in the Information Society. Policy documents on the topic are scrutinized and related to a concrete praxis. Data has been collected through two case studies; one carried out in Ronneby and one in Trandared, Borås. These cases where chosen because of the existence of a local policy for library skills and information search for 6 to 12-year-olds.

Library and information science students often ask themselves if their education will be sufficient and adapted to the work tasks they will meet with as future librarians. It is the aim of this Master thesis to investigate LIS-graduates' experiences of the transfer from academic studies into professional life. The thesis thus treats four questions: I: What problems, if any, does the LIS-graduate experience when first employed? 2: Does the recently employed librarian feel that the academically obtained knowledge is applicable in professional life? And, if so, how does it apply? 3: Does the new employee find that there are areas in which his/her academic education has been insufficient? 4: What is the general attitude towards LIS-graduates' education among colleagues and is the library staff prepared to provide the necessary instructions? The investigation is performed through interviews with eight LIS-graduates, all of whom have recently started working as public librarians. The analysis is based on the concepts of competence, qualifications, work skills, knowledge and in the processes of formal and practical learning.

The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to investigate how the activities of the public library are portrayed by the Swedish press. It poses the following questions: What kinds of public library activities are portrayed in the Swedish press? What image does this depiction purvey to the general public about the societal role of public libraries?A model of four library spaces developed by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Jochumsen is used as the theoretical framework for this study. Qualitative content analysis is applied to 173 Swedish newspaper articles that describe public library activities.The analysis reveals that articles about many kinds of public library activities get published in the Swedish press, but that some activities occur more frequently than others.