The aim of this Master's thesis is to discuss and analyse co-operation between public and academic libraries. The political changes that were initiated during 2004 have come to alter the conditions for Swedish libraries. The Swedish Library law was changed at the 1st of January 2005 and co-operation between libraries is now statuary even if there is no description of how the new mission is to be executed. At the same time an extensive report about the Royal Library and its role as the Swedish National Library was presented. This report also recommended an increased co-operation between different types of libraries.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate and understand how technology students handle information especially when they are working with their Masters thesis. A further purpose is to examine how technology students use Library resources of the Linköping University. The research method used is grounded theory, where description of the method is an integral part of the study. Twelve qualitative interviews were made with newly qualified graduates from the engineering programs of Linköping Institute of Technology. The respondents were divided into two groups, A and B, with six in each group.

During the late 1990s a movement with the intention of forming independent libraries emerged on Cuba. They were seen as an alternative to the public libraries which were supposed to be suffering from censorship by the Cuban government. The purpose of this thesis is to compile and bring structure in a debate regarding public libraries on Cuba and what have become known as independent libraries. In this thesis a textual analysis has been approached for examining articles, websites and reports concerning what attitudes and position the Library support organizations Friends of Cuban Libraries FCL, Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group CLSG and IFLA/FAIFE have regarding the two different Library types. These positions is throughout the survey connected with the concept of intellectual freedom.

In this two years master?s thesis I examine the Library?s representation of research and its influence upon the relationship between the Library practice and the research practice. I also intend to find out what controls the representation and if it is possible to see changes in the representation over time. My source material has been texts published in the Swedish Library journal ? and social domain ? Biblioteksbladet during the last decennium (2001?2011).

This study examines the cultural place and status of video and computer games in the Swedish public Library. Using works on popular culture and the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this study employs quantitative methods, as well as textual analysis, to analyze the results of an online questionnaire with 19 questions focusing on selection criteria, shelf placement, perceived competence, as well as reasoning for having or not having these games in the Library. 286 out of the 440 libraries contacted is participating in the study, and the libraries consist exclusively of public libraries in Sweden that are found in the database of the Royal Library.The results of this study show that a larger number of libraries than previously indicated have started to provide electronic games to their patrons. At the same time, patterns in the data and comments suggests that these games in many cases still do not enjoy the same level of cultural recognition as other media. Indicative of this is the way most libraries seem to focus on the medium being exclusively for their young patrons, with seem-ingly very little in the way of investment for adults.

The aim of this study is to examine the significance of having a music department at the public Library in Enköping, and how the organization of the phonograms is handled. The different areas examined are the reason of the reintroduction of a music department, its budget, its users, the work with selection, the marketing, statistical data concerning loans, the work with classification, indexing, and organization of the phonograms and the future of the music department. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with staff connected to the music department at the public Library in Enköping. For the theoretical frame, Sanna Taljas discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland is used. Talja presents three discourses which all show different views on what kind of material a music Library should contain.

The aim of this master thesis is to study the students usage and experiences of the reference services at the university Library at Linköping University. The four questions that I seek answers to are: - What kind of help do the students most often ask for at the reference desk? - To what extent do the students use the reference services for their studies? - What are the students experiences of the help they receive at the reference desk? - What are the students experiences of the treatment they receive from the librarians at the reference desk? I have studied literature that describes reference work and evaluation of reference work. I have also studied Christian Grönroos theory of service quality. I have distributed questionnaires to students at Linköping University.

This Master thesis aims to illuminate nine librarians relation to professional information. This is accomplished by focusing on five questions: How do they communicate and acquire professional information, and how do they evaluate its relevance? What are their experiences of continuing professional education? What are their opinions on the academicalisation of the education? Is it possible to perceive something of the librarians professional project in the informants statements? What is their relation to the academic subject of Library and information science and the research on the area? The analysis is based upon the interviews with nine librarians and carried out with profession theory in order to study the role of theoretic knowledge in our participants professionalisation processes. We also use different context oriented theories to study the contextual dimension of information need and seeking. The conclusions of this Master thesis reveal that the communication between the theory of Library and information science and the practice need to be improved if we want to see more of an evidence-based librarianship.

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to contribute to theunderstanding of the headmaster´s view of his role when it comes to developing the school Library and in particular the work of integrating the Library into the teaching. The basis is three questions: What views do the headmasters express regarding the libraries´ main functions? What views do the headmasters express regarding their own importance for the school libraries´ pedagogical role? How do the headmasters regard the interaction between teachers and librarians, as to how the interaction works? To get answers to these questions we conducted semi-structured interviews with headmasters of secondary schools. As a theoretical starting point, we used our own taxonomy for headmasters. The basis of our taxonomy are from the points by the ?Svenska biblioteksföreningen? and ?Kungliga biblioteket?, which together form a description of a school Library integrated in the school curricula.

The main purpose of this Masters thesis was to examine how the Internet and other electronic sources have affected public librarians use of printed reference sources. During the last couple of years the use of the electronic sources - in particular the Internet has become more established in the Swedish public libraries. Our aim was to examine if and how this has affected the use of the printed reference sources. This has been examined on the basis of the following factors: the gender and age of the librarians and how long they have served in the Library. We also examined if the size of the Library affects the use of the printed and the electronic reference sources and also which factors that are most important when librarians acquire reference sources.

The public Library´s overall purpose and legitimacy is analways relevant subject for discussion in Library andInformation Science and in public debate on libraries.Libraries are a part of a bigger societal context and are thusinevitably influenced by societal changes. In this thesis wehave studied different roles and functions of the publicLibrary, as seen from documents published by one specificpublic Library in Malmö - Garaget. As basis we have usedan analysis model of the Library in the knowledge andexperience society made by Jochumsen, HvenegaaardRasmussen och Skot-Hansen (2010). Our purpose has beento examine which ideas and notions on the functions of thepublic Library that can be found in Garaget?s documents andin the model ? and to discuss them from a discoursive pointof view.

This essay aims to examine how science fiction literature is supported and made available for readers at four public libraries. Each Library has its own opinion of what a public Library?s role in society is, and that affects how literature acquisition and media exposure is done at that particular Library. To explore this, the author uses a modified version of Elzinga and Andersson?s theory of traditionalism, pragmatism and emancipationism.

This thesis is of an historical nature and deals with two institutions in Bosnia and Hercegovina: waqf and the Library of Gazi Husrev bay. These institutions are placed in a societal context which makes it easier to understand their origins, development and decline. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the history of the Library of Gazi Husrev bay and its specific characteristics as well as analyze the institution of waqf in a societal context. The questions posed by this thesis are: What is waqf and its meaning? What are its benevolent as well as hostile periods? How did the Library of Gazi Husrev bay and its mission develop? The thesis is limited to waqf in its societal context.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine and analyse how the public Librarys mission is interpreted and formulated in a selection of Library related journals. The journals are both international scientific referee journals from the LIS field and journals with a closer connection to the practitioners within the public Library field. The idea is that these journals can be seen as windows to an academic theoretic perspective on public libraries, as well as to the practitioners way of talking about the Librarys mission. The study also aims to examine if there is a difference in the way that the Librarys mission is interpreted and discussed among theorists and among practitioners within the field. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory, and the method is text analytic.

This thesis is a contribution to the discussion on the public Library?s institutional identity in late modernity. The aim is to shed light on the public Library?s identity as expressed through its public events. The thesis seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of public events are offered at public libraries? What themes distinguish the content of these events? What characterizes the institutional identity expressed through these events? In addition to the concept of institutional identity, a model of four Library spaces, developed by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Jochumsen, constitutes the theoretical framework of this thesis.