In this master thesis, I investigate four Public Librarys´ program activities. The purpose is to explore what the Library program activities contribute to as a part of a well functioning democracy. The theoretical points, I have brought from political science. I assume three different ideals of democracy; electoral democracy, participation democracy and deliberative democracy. All have different views on what can be characterized by a well-functioning democracy.My empirical material consists of Library program guides, the libraries´ target documents and interviews with staff at the libraries who work with or have overall responsibility for program activities in their respective libraries.

Futurum.kom is a collaborative marketing project with the aim of strengthening the internal organization of Länsbibliotek Sydost, Regionbibliotek Kalmar and the 25 public libraries within the southeast region. The project intends to externally build the brands of the public libraries in Blekinge, Kalmar and Kronobergs län. This thesis is a study and evaluation of the implementation and results of Futurum.kom?s first campaign "Låna dig rik" at a public Library. The analysis is based on the following issues:? What goals does the Library have with the "Låna dig rik"-campaign.? What is the feedback from the staff's experience of the users in terms of needs and demands?? In which way does the Library choose to implement the marketing campaign and what role do the users have in this process?? What is the internal performance of the Library's marketing campaign, what was the experience of the staff of the campaign?? What is the external result of the Library's marketing campaign?The method is based on a case study of a single Library, with a series of interviews and document analysis of written and electronic documents.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research Library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research Library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the Library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University Library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the Library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the Library as a meeting place.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the content in Swedish Library weblogs. We want to examine what the posts contain, especially on the subject knowledge organization. Which themes do the weblogs have in common? How the weblog authors categorize their posts and how the readers use the comment function, are other questions we seek answers to in the thesis. We have performed content analysis where we created the code units during the process.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the libraries in the town of Värnamo, between the years 1908 and 1960, when a new modern public Library was inaugurated. The method I have used is, to a great extent, examining and analysing source material from the archive of the municipality in Värnamo and the popular movement in Jönköping. As a background to my study I describe the development of the Swedish society, from the end of the nineteenth-, until the middle of the twentieth century. I also describe the local development of Värnamo, during the same period. Furthermore I also give a general description of the progress of the libraries in Sweden during the same time.

The purpose of this thesis is Library work in exile, more specifically The Kurdish Library in Stockholm (?Kurdiska biblioteket?). The Kurds have a long history of exile, forming a part of their national and cultural identity. I have therefore chosen in the analysis three concepts: nationalism, ethnicity and culture. The Kurdish Library is unique and is different from a traditional Library in many ways.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the Library needs of fourteen-to-fifteen-year-olds. We have limited the investigation to the significance of libraries for the teenagers in their leisure time. Our focus is the public Library with a particular reference to the plans for a new local public Library with a youth profile in Malmö. With a departure point in the idea that young people?s use and view of libraries is to a large extent depending on factors such as social and cultural background and lifestyle, we chose to do a qualitative interview study with eight teenagers.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe how principals apprehend the school Library. In order to respond to this I formulated three questions: How was the improvement of the school libraries carried out in one municipality? Is the school Library experienced as a part of the schools organization? How is the use of the school´s Library experienced? To be able to answer these questions, for the purpose of this thesis, I have studied relevant literature on school libraries, the school organization and literature on qualitative methods. I have made six qualitative interviews. The objects of the interviews were three librarians and three principals.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to study opinions about the Swedish hospital libraries and their activities for the patients, in a selection of Swedish Library journal articles. The theoretical starting point is grounded in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory. The empirical material consists of 43 articles from three Library journals; Biblioteksbladet, Blänkaren and DIK-forum, published between 1990 and 2004. These are analysed through a reading scheme in four levels. In the empirical material two themes appear; the culture theme and the patient information theme.

The aim of this essay is to examine fan culture?s role in Swedish public libraries. I have interviewed, via email, six librarians who encounter and use fan culture in their daily work. The theoretical elements of my essay are based on a modified set of theories by Dorte Skot-Hansen that identifies six ideal types of cultural political rationalities. My study reveals that fan culture is used in Swedish libraries as a tool in increasing user participation in Library activities.

The aim with this Master's thesis is to study the debate that takes place in the local community when a public Library branch is threatened by closedown through the local newspapers. Through this it is our aim to understand why the debate takes place, and why so many people gets concerned with it. By relating this debate to contemporary research of Library- and information science, and the discussion in three major Swedish Library journals, we have found the answers to these questions. By studying the debate, we found six subjects that where essential for this study. These were Politics and economics, Urban and rural districts, Democracy and accessibility, The service of the Library, The meeting place and To replace a closed down Library.

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that Libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school Library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school Library which means that they use the public Library instead.

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that Libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school Library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school Library which means that they use the public Library instead.

This two year master thesis examines the Swedish prison Library's history during cell prison era.The investigation extends from the mid-1800s well into the 1900s. The purpose is to investigate theprison Library by using a power concepts influenced by Michel Foucault. The questions revolvearound the ideas that formed the basis for the prison Library and how the prison Library was organizedin practice. Three types of sources are used to answer the essay questions and illustrate its pro -blems. Firstly, annual reports concerning the swedish prison system.

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public Library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public Library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each Library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public Library? What cooperation partners does the public Library have and what do they mean to the Library? Does the public Library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.