The purpous of this master?s thesis is to explore how the swedish public Library evolved between 1890-1911, before the state implemented the Library reform in 1912. The material used to cunduct the study concists mainly of texts published during the time frame of the thesis in the form of books, booklets and articles from Folkbiblioteksbladet, a journal dedicated to the subject of the swedish public Library.Drawing upon Habermas theory of the structural transformation of the public sphere and Bourdieus theories about taste as social distinction and symbolic capital, the thesis seeks to show how the public participated in the evolvement of the public Library and which aspects of society that contributed to the public Library?s establishment as an institution. The findings are also discussed in relation to previous research of the history of the Swedish public Library.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the opinions of the students of Linköping University regarding the role of the university Library in their learning process. The study addresses the student?s expectations and satisfaction regarding the Library services. The questions we seek to answer are: What are the students? conceptions of Linköping University Library as a part of their learning process? What expectations do the students have regarding Linköping University Library? Does the Library fulfil the students? expectations? In what way has the Library?s pedagogical ambition reached the students? What are the students? opinions about the user education? The study is based on a web survey complemented with interviews.

This thesis is a case study which describes the automation of a university Library in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the case study is, firstly; to find out which actors and factors have started and influenced the automation and the implementation of ICT at Makerere University Library in Kampala, Uganda. Secondly; it also discusses if the automation has changed the Librarys condition. The empirical material consists of fifteen interviews with librarians and students. The empirical material itself has functioned as a base when discerning the analytical themes.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public Library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the Library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public Library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public Library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well.

The purpose of this study is to examine teachers and school-leaders attitude to the school Library. Both the cause of and the consequences of these attitudes are examined. In order to fulfil my purpose I have examined this through both literature and empirical studies. I have interviewed the headmaster, the school librarian and two teachers at two comprehensive schools. As theoretical framework I have used David Loertschers taxonomy containing theories about the levels in an ideal school Library and Miles model of school development.

This paper describes the development of direct and indirect service at the former Gothen­burg city Library. This was during this period of time not the public Library of the town, but a scientific Library mostly serving the college, although also open to the public. Furthermore the services offered in Gothenburg are compared with those of the two old Swedish university libraries in Uppsala and Lund. The investigated direct serviceforms are "making material available", "guidance", and "localities". The indirect service areas are "the catalogue" and "the personnel and their competence".The conclusion is that the differences weren't that big and that Gothenburg city Library was a modern Library providing about the same services as you could find in Uppsala and Lund.

Library 2.0 is a term which emerged a few years ago and is frequently discussed. There is no uniform definition of the term but the central aspect of the concept is to encourage increased participation from Library users.The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate if and if so, how the professional role of the librarian is affected by Library 2.0. To do that, we have conducted a case study at the public Library in Umeå. Their homepage minabibliotek.se is a practical example of Library 2.0. The homepage is based on interactivity and the Library users can participate in various ways.We thougt that qualitive interviews was the best way to gain an understanding for how the librarians at the public Library in Umeå experience how the work with minabibliotek.se affect their professional role.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine what role the new city Library in Halmstad has for its users. The questions posed in this study are: What do the users actually do at the Library? What roles are the most significant according to the users? Have the politicians succeeded in their intention of realizing a modern Library according to the users? The theoretical starting point is Andersson?s and Skot-Hansen?s theory of four different roles of public libraries. In order to extend the model we added a fifth function; the one of aesthetical experience.

This master thesis examines the development of the two earlier independent IR protocols Z39.50 and SR (Search and Retrieve, ISO 10162/10163), now Z39.50/SR, from the beginning of the 80s to 1996 and their functionality in the client/server environment.Z39.50 applications in Library systems will allow easy access to information regardless of platform or location. The use of Z39.50 will create a new user environment. Almost all the Library systems of the market support the Z39.50 and surprisingly the use of it in Sweden lied on a very low leve! in 1996. This thesis was followed-up by an interview and a questioner among the Swedish Z39.50 users. They could see a huge potential of development concerning the future IR process.

This thesis is an attempt to study how a Library that is driven by a contractor works. How allinvolved parts can cooperate. The main method used, is qualitative interviews. The authorshave made a survey at the public Library in Järna in Södertälje county, where Boktjänst i JärnaAB has the business on contract since 1991.Following areas have been studied: organisation and assignment; Librarysphere of activity andservices; the relations to the main Library, and the vision for the future of the Library.Some of the conclusions drawn by the authors are that when tenders are invited for a job, thelocal conditions must be taken into consideration. To have the same employer for the wholeLibrary staff are likely to simplify the matters.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the importance of the school Library in a selected junior high school. My investigation is based on both theoretical and empirical studies. The aim of the theoretical part is to create a platform and refer to thoughts, roles and laws concerning the activity of the school Library. The empirical investigation consists of two parts: questionnaires among students and teachers, plus interviews with students, teachers, headmaster, school librarian and the management of education. Everybody shows a positive attitude towards the school Library and considers it important for the students exams.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the information need of the incubators that comes from Chalmers University of Technology and are situated at Chalmers Innovation. It is also of interest to investigate how Chalmers University Library covers this information need. The investigation was carried out using qualitative interviews with representatives of the incubators. They were asked questions about the perceived need of information and which type of contacts they had with the Library. The result is that the incubators feel that there is a great need for business information that is hard to find.

The purpose of this masters? thesis is to investigate how public librarians perceive privacy in connection with new technology in libraries. The main research questions are: - How do librarians experience the phenomenon privacy in the Library?- How do librarians experience the relation between privacy and technology in the Library?- What does this say about the relationship between privacy, technological development and Library work?The study was performed with a phenomenographic methodological approach. The material consists of qualitative interviews with eight librarians who work at public libraries where the technology RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has been implemented.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine and present the programmes and activities of school Library centres in order to see what functions (purposes) they can fulfil in a municipality and also if and how they can contribute to school Library development. In order to fulfil my purpose I have made qualitative interviews with five librarians from school Library centres. The theoretical framework is primarily based on David Loertscher?s.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the surrounding world and the Library with respect to the Library?s need to provide a Library 2.0 web site. We also explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual Library. Our research objects are the public libraries of Stockholm and the Umeå region, that maintain the web sites Biblioteket.se and minabibliotek.se respectively. By applying Dorte Skot-Hansen's theory of rationales we found that the Stockholm public Library is acting in accordance with the experience rationale, whereas the libraries of Umeå are influenced by the instrumental rationale.