This master's thesis studies Utländska biblioteket, a 19th century foreign literature subscription library in Karlskrona, Sweden. The aim of the thesis is to investigate Utländska biblioteket between 1835?1864.The material consists primarily of primary sources from the archive of Utländska biblioteket. The main primary sources are the library's accounts book, its minutes, and two book catalogs. Using analytical tools from Jürgen Habermas, feminist criticism of his ideas and from Pierre Bourdieu, as well as results from previous research on older library forms and female organization in the 19th century, the thesis answers questions relating to the library as a society, its members and its book collection.The investigation shows that Utländska biblioteket was a subscription library as well as a book circle.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to identify discourses within the school library field and to analyse which professional identities the discourses result in for school librarians. The empirical data consist of 71 articles from Swedish journals concerning school libraries and school librarians, between the years 2000-2003. The theory and method used is a discourse analysis which is inspired by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This form of discourse analysis was chosen since it was useful when identity was the focus of study. The analysis is accomplished in three steps.

This masters thesis investigates how the Swedish county libraries relate to equality between men and women. The thesis treats the county library both as a place of work and as a part of the national library network. One of the reasons why this study focuses on county libraries is because of their special position in the Swedish library organisation as a link between the national policy and the public libraries. The analysis in the study is based on theories that argue masculinity and femininity as social constructions, and therefore can be affected by a different type of conduct. Data was gathered using qualitative questionnaires combined with some quantitative elements that were used to gain fundamental facts regarding the distribution of employees between the sexes and the existence of equality policies.

We studied how librarians would adapt to telework, the performance of job responsibilitiesfrom home. We found'that all duties could be accomplished. but to varied extents.Computerbased searches, interlibrary loans, acquisitions, indexing and telephone referenceservices are the duties most likely to adapt to telework whereas cataloguing andclassification probably are best performed in the ordinary workplace.Most duties would demand access to technical means of assistance when performed fromhome. Connections to the library's local network, directly or via modem, are requiredbecause it is unrealistic to expect librarians to telework with fewer tools than theyordinarily have available. Although librarians generally believe that teleworking will nothave a large irnpact on the operation of the library, most would like to telework.Whether teleworking is a viable strategy depends on the characteristics of the duties, thelibrarian's desire to telework, but also on the size of the library, the size of its staff, thelibrary's activities, and how work is distributed between librarians..

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

Utformningen av tangentbordet har sett annorlunda ut genom tiderna,men de senaste drygt hundra åren har den inte ändrat sig mycket.Alternativa tangentbordsutformningar existerar, men har inte fått detgenomslag man kunnat tro de skulle få. Är de verkligen så bra som desäger? Denna rapport utreder hur några vanligt förekommande layouterförhåller sig till varandra ur ansträngningssynpunkt, för några väl valdamjukvaruprojekt skrivna i programmeringspråket Java..

Romanization as a method in the bibliographic environment makes retrieval difficult in many aspects. The object of this thesis is to illustrate the importance and the possibility to include non-Roman script in the records of the library catalogue. The questions at issue are about the consequences of romanization, the technical requirements for implementing non-Roman script, and bibliographical resources that have been developed during the last 20 years. The thesis is based on a literature study and correspondence with people who are familiar with the subject. The thesis points out that Romanization causes information to be distorted in various ways and is inconsistent with the requirements of exactitude in bibliographic control.

This master?s thesis investigates in which ways students seek out and access their textbooks and how they use their university?s library in this process. Data is collected through interviews from six students several semesters into their studies at the University of Stockholm. For the interviews two students each were selected from the fields of law, economics and humanities. The empirical findings were analyzed using T.D Wilson?s model of information behavior (1997).

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to survey what personal encounter at the library can signify, and to examine Swedish public libraries? policies for personal encounter. The posed questions are: What does personal encounter at the library signify? How are users and library staff represented in the collected policies? What do the policies say about digital encounter? 290 e-mail queries were sent to Swedish public libraries in May 2010. Of 140 responses, 107 stated that they did not have a written policy on personal encounter.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the local debate on the Music library in Västervik to see what arguments, pro et contra, that constitutes it. Since its opening the Music library has faced regular threats of being closed down. This is an issue interesting due to several factors, its lack of guaranteed public funding and relative importance to Västervik´s attempts at city branding being two. Using argument analysis, the thesis proposes that the local debate shows traces of both instrumental and culture centered, intrinsical views of the Music library, and that the instrumental view holds both negative and positive poles of opinion while the intrinsical counterpart is one-sidedly positive. Further, the thesis argues that this is in line with a long since documented shift in cultural politics towards a more market oriented discourse..

In this study the author attempts to identify factors that are determinants for why some pupils in Swedish grade school have high status in comparison with their peers. The study takes on the characteristics of both an ethnographic and a literature study by comparing the findings of interviews carried out with students of a first grade class with previous research. The study identify several tools for analyzing of how status may be understood in specific situations.The study also finds that important factors for gaining high status amongst children in aschool classes might be the ability to apply access strategies to get accepted in social interactions, such as game play, have the ability to create games that are enjoyed by peers and social skills, to name a few. Overall the study shows that children's game play with each otherare crucial for their social interactions and their social position. The study also show that children that have earlier established relationships with other children in a specific group alsohave a better opportunity to establish a high status position..

The aim of this study is to examine how work at music departments in public libraries has changed with time. To analyze this, the role of music libraries as well as music library users, selection, holdings, acquisition and technological development have been examined. The examined data consists of qualitative interviews with music librarians and library assistants at public libraries in Sweden. To get a time perspective, handbooks and articles about music departments in libraries have also been analyzed.This study emanates from Sanna Talja?s discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland.

This study is about fourteen-year-old boys, who are not interested in reading. It deals with what thoughts and feelings some boys have around books, reading and libraries. Further the study investigates the boys' leisure activities and their making of identities. The study is built on interviews among twelve boys in a secondary school. The result is compared to earlier reports and research.

Stratego is a boardgame not very different from chess, that contains hidden information. Because of this, existing programs play at beginner level. The purpose of this thesis is to adjust a minimax algorithm so that it passes the demands of Stratego, and then build a Stratego agent around it. Tests with existing minimax algorithms leads to the development p-e-minimax. This algorithm uses two different values in its nodes to simulate the different information available to the agent and its opponent.

This Master's thesis discusses the freedom of speech, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas in the context of public libraries in Sweden. The scope of this thesis is to examine the acquisition and maintenance of the literature about the killing of Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme 1986. This literature will serve as an instrument to measure the extent to which Swedish public libraries adhere to the rules set by the Swedish parliament, United Nations' universal declaration of human rights article 19, UNESCO's public library manifesto and the principles of the Federation of Library Associations and Institutions..