This master thesis is about access to literature translated into Swedish sign language for deaf at the public libraries. It is by now a well-known fact that there is produced very little literature in sign language for deaf. This is so even though the policies for the library nationally and internationally, and the public law for libraries in Sweden says there should be literature available for all groups of disadvantaged people. People who have problem reading ordinary ink books have the right to get the book adapted into a medium accessible for them. The goal of the Swedish law for disadvantaged says that in 2010 Sweden should be accessible for all irrespective of weather you are deaf or not.

This thesis studies the concept of balance in the management control systems (MCS) of a small Swedish company within the IT-sector. The aim is to evaluate the importance of balance and dynamics in MCS and investigate which factors affect them. The frameworks used are Simons (1994) four levers of control, and the five-factor model for balance and dynamics by Mundy (2010). The small IT company - the object of the case study - has grown extensively in the last years and needs to develop more formal MCS without losing efficiency and creativity in their fast-moving industry. The case study reveals that balancing MCS is important also in smaller companies with less formal MCS.

The mainpart of this thesis is about the developing of a new analysis tool to be used in Zenicor Medical Systems AB ECG-system. The primary task of the system is to simplify the ECG survey for patients who suffers from different kinds of arrythmias, for example heart fibrillation. With this system is it possible for the patients to do their ECG survey by them self at home and then send the signal with their telephone or mobilphone to a server. The equipment used to do the survey is not bigger than you can have it in a pocket and this results in a bigger flexibility for the patient. A doctor can connect to the server and analys the ECG-curve and follow up the patients condition..

Today significant resources are provided to improve the digital work environment within the Swedish healthcare to create efficiency, good work environment and patient safety. Despite this, major flaws are shown by the lack of communication between the eHealthcare systems. This becomes a stress factor among healthcare professionals because of increased administration and decreased physical contact with patients. The purpose of this study is to create a understanding of the concept of interoperability at different levels in the eHealthcare systems. This has been conducted through a qualitative interview study at a healthcare center where the respondents have been describing their digital work environment and the way it works today.

The objective of this study was to make an inventory and a potential analysis of the organic beef production in the region of Gävleborg, Sweden. A survey was conducted, where a questionaire was sent to all farmers in the region who had environmental subsidies concerning organic cropping systems in 2001. In total, there were 701 farmers, of which 46 % participated in the study. Three slaughter houses were interviewed to get their pictures of the development of organic beef production. The study shows that there are potentials and interests in the region to increase the production of organic beef.

Each year a significant number of children?s books, with a wide range of themes, are being published. The relation between children and adults is a common theme. In this study I have analyzed ten children?s books, five from the 1970?s and five from the 2010?s.

This study is based on my work as a teacher of Swedish language and literature to upper secondary school students, and my interest in developing the teaching of literature by using both new criticism theories and theories of literary perception focusing on reader response. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning process in trying to develop literary competence and to find out how to describe the competence shown by the students. My starting-point is a discussion about literary competence and the theory and model of literary competence by Örjan Torell. In examining literary competence, by how students use their constitutional competence as well as performance and literary transfer competences, Torell´s model shows the possibility and the need for both knowledge of literature and personal reception by focusing on the dialogue between author and reader.The method is qualitative and the empirics are material collected in one senior high school class in the Social Science programme during their second and third year. The material contains written reading logs, written answers to tasks and transcribed recordings of discussions of literature.The analysis shows a variety among the literary competence shown and developed by the students and points to the complexity of understanding the concept of literary competence.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study attitudes and standpoints among a few librarians towards literature with state supported distribution provided by the Swedish Arts Council. By qualitative interviews with librarians at five different public libraries, the thesis examines which attitudes that flourish concerning the titles, how the circular of books is treated, where the titles belong on the literature map and if the system is producing a standardisation of this literature and if the conception of quality is relevant. We also study how the librarians relate to intentions of the Swedish Art Council with the distributed titles and how they regard their availability. Our theoretical framework is based on Hans Hertel?s model of five literary circulations and Theodor W.

Sweden has a long tradition as a mapmaking nation. Tens of thousands of historical maps,dating from the sixteenth century and onwards are still preserved in archives today, providinga rich resource for studies of city growth and changes in the landscape through time. For morethan ten years an effort has been made by public authorities to transfer this material frompaper onto digital media. Due to modern technology, as for example GeographicalInformation Systems (GIS), researchers have been given improved possibilities to study andanalyze this material. This study uses a qualitative approach, based on both literature studiesas well as map studies.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the present importance of liberal education in the Swedish "folkhögskola" by studying its expressions in the teaching of literature and fiction. I have interviewed teachers at four different schools about their opinions of liberal education, literature and cultural heritage, means of instruction, and influence of their students. Liberal education in this thesis is considered as a process. Starting from our own experiences we meet something strange to us and while absorbing this in our experiences we change. But its purpose also is to convey the canon of Western literature.

The purpose of this study is to present a comparative analysis of seven literature anthologies for the Upper Secondary School, from 1968-2004, to investigate how much space Esaias Tegnér is getting and how many and which of his works that is presented in these anthologies.The study is set against the hypothesis that Tegnér is getting a reduced space in the anthologies because of his connection to Romantic nationalism, which after World War II has been associated to the themes and ideology of the National Socialism. In view of this I have asked myself if Tegnér is getting a reduced space in the literature anthologies for the Upper Secondary School. My study shows that this is the case.One can also see clear trends in a subjective approach towards the author. In the anthologies where Tegnér have had a strong prominent role, he is retaining his position even in later editions. Over the entire period of 1968-2004 he is getting a less prominent role, although he is generally presented as the greatest poet of his time.I have also examined the discussion of Tegnér during that period to see if you can find any connection between the discussion about Tegnér and the change his work gets in the literature anthologies.

This thesis presents a comparative study of image registration at two picture collection libraries. The two registration systems are analyzed as to the theoretical principles behind them and their practical application, and related to theoretical tools for subject analysis and bibliographic standards. While a growing number of picture collections now digitize their material, generally accepted standards and methods for the registration of digital images are still lacking. Many different systems coexist, often developed in-house in response to ad hoc needs and based on traditional registration tools created for textual documents, resulting in internationally incompatible mixed-format systems. The two picture collections examined here, however, have opted for similar, standardized tools for registration and subject analysis, and while there are differences in their application and focus, they have both considered issues of cross-system compatibility.

The aim of this master's thesis is to investigate how adults and especially children's librarians and intermediate level teachers experience children's literature. The aim is also to examine how children at the age of nine to twelve experience the literature that is written for them, according to a few master's theses written at Bibliotekshögskolan in Boras. Which criteria in children's books do the different groups consider as the most important, that the children can learn something when reading or is it the experience of the literature itself that is the most important? To fulfil the aim of this master's thesis I have interviewed three intermediate level teachers and three children's librarians and the result has been analysed using a model created by Maria Nikolajeva that shows four ways to get close to children's literature. My study is too small to be counted as a general result but it shows that both the children's librarians and the intermediate level teachers mainly ends up in the field that concerns the reading experience one can have when reading fiction.

As the information society becomes increasingly flooded with digital images, the need for efficient image retrieval systems increases as well. To handle the vast amounts of data involved, the indexing process needs to be run automatically, using content-based descriptors extracted directly from the digital image, such as colour composition, shape and texture features. These content-based image retrieval systems are often slow and cumbersome, and can appear confusing to an ordinary user who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. One step towards more efficient and user-friendly retrieval systems might be to adjust the weight placed on various descriptors depending on which image category is being searched for. The results of this thesis show that certain categories of digital images would benefit from having extra weight assigned to colour, texture or shape features when searching for images of that category..

In a comparing survey this thesis investigatesclassification systems for dams in Sweden, Norway,Finland, Switzerland, Canada and USA. Theinvestigation is aiming at an understanding of howpotential consequences of a dam failure are takeninto account when classifying dams. Furthermore,the significance of the classification, regarding therequirements on the dam owner and surveillanceauthorities concerning dam safety is considered andreviewed. The thesis is pointing out similarities anddifferences in the line of dam safety.The survey of dam safety is firstly based upon legalrequirements in the different countries andsecondly on guidelines regarding dam safety. Damowners generally are ultimately responsible for thesafety of their dam, and often have their ownroutines regarding how this safety is to be achieved.In this thesis, however, the legal requirements aremainly focused upon.The investigation has resulted in an outlining ofeight areas, where the classification systems in thevarious countries have been compared.