This thesis is based on an investigation to find out in what way 40 Swedish public librarieskeep and preserve their library materials. The investigation is based on inquiries sent outto the libraries. It deals with the keeping of books with regard to external factors which havedestructive effects on library materials as well as the safety at the library buildings. It is, aswell, about the preserving work being done at the libraries.Comparisons are made with literature and accounts about preserving measures and recommendationsregarding appropriate environment in premises and depositories. The resultsshow great differences between the libraries as to the library environment, i.e.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of libraries on Tjörn, an island on the Swedish west coast. I have divided the thesis in two parts, one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1873 to 1952 in the municipality of Stenkyrka and one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1976 and 1985 in the municipality of Tjörn. The study is mainly based on written materials and a theoretic model will also be used in which I apply three factors, society, the libraries economy and individual actors on the library activity. The libraries in Stenkyrka during the early period were dependent of public grant from the state for their survival and the libraries were undeveloped. The society around them was poor and hardly any money or assistants came from the municipality.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some children with reading problems experience and use libraries. The main problem was: How do dyslectic children experience and use libraries and how do they handle their reading difficulties when using libraries? The questions at issue were: 1. Do children with reading problems use libraries, and if so how? - in which purposes do they use libraries? - which materials and services do they use? - why dont some children use libraries? 2.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the construction of sexuality in Swedish school libraries through the lens of Foucault?s concept of power/knowledge. Five libraries were investigated, using two kinds of method: discourse analysis of titles, classification codes and subject headings of sex education materials, and qualitative interviews with librarians working at each of the libraries. Most sex education materials were classified within the medicine section, illustrating the continued authority of medical discourse in matters concerning sexuality. Books for younger audiences were often written for either boys or girls, reproducing a binary understanding of gender.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to find out if public libraries provide new age materials or not. My research is done using the point of view of the library users. Do they think libraries hold a sufficient amount of new age literature and do the users find this literature of good quality? To find an answer to this question, interviews have been made with a number of library users interested in new age related issues. Interviews have also been made with librarians, to get their point of view on this rather controversial subject.

LIBRIS is a national library search engine offering information about 6 million books, articles, dissertations and other materials held by Swedish university libraries, research libraries and public libraries. In December 2007 a new version of LIBRIS was launched, developed with focus on usability, simplicity and accessibility. This thesis examines how the new LIBRIS is used, what is working well and what could be improved and also what the users think of LIBRIS. The following report is based partly on a study of usability and partly on a series of tests where librarians, scientists, students and developers have executed a number of tasks while thinking aloud. The users also participated in an interview.

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.

The purpose of this study is to focus on library service for children in a hospital, which in turn is seen in relation to a traditional children s library. Four aspects of library work were investigated. These aspects were working methods, partners of co-operation for the libraries, media policy (acquisition, use of the collection and circulation procedures), as well as programme activities for children.The research method was qualitative and comparative in nature, consisting of case studies of two libraries : (1) the library in a children s hospital, known as Bokskogen at Astrid Lindgren s children s hospital in Stockholm and (2) a traditional children s library, the children s department at Eslövs city library. In each library interviews were conducted. The investigation shows that the librarians in the hospital library must be more outreaching and active in order to stimulate children to use library materials.

This paper explores the accessibility for patrons with different physical disabilities in regards to materials, service, the library building and its website at two typical, medium-sized public libraries in Sweden.The case study is based on interviews, observations, and document and literature studies. As a theoretical framework for this study, Buckland?s model of information barriers is used to describe, discuss and evaluate how the two libraries work with accessibility. In addition, international and national guidelines are used to measure whether additional actions are required of the libraries to improve the accessibility.The results show that both libraries are well suited in various respects to provide for the different needs and the requirements of patrons with physical disabilities. Some obstacles still exist in both libraries, especially in the lack of literature in accessible formats in different languages.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out whether the main class C (religion) in the Swedish classification system Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek is well adapted to classify materials published in or imported to Sweden, and handled by Swedish libraries today. The questions we put to ourselves were:1. How easy to understand, and how useful is the main class C religion today?2. What, in the main class C, is satisfactory?3. What, in the main class C, is inconsistent, anachronistic or incorrect?4. What, in the main class C, is in need of change or renewal?The method that was used was a number of interviews with librarians and cataloguers. We have interviewed eight librarians from six different libraries, of different types, but all with a relatively large collection of religious materials.Though all of our respondents have expressed a feeling that all the major religions deserve equal treatment in the classification system and a similar division of space, after some pondering on the subject, our respondents have agreed that a larger space for Christianity is warranted considering the composition of the current collections and publication. Our respondents have in some cases expressed that there is a lack of instructions as to how the subdivisions of the main class C (religion) is meant to be used.

The purpose of this study is to find out how libraries can be user-friendly to people with dyslexia by focusing on how adult dyslectics experience the library. Data were collected through literature and interviews with adult dyslectic students. Two different types of user studies served as a theoretical framework; one was an individual-related study by professor Wilson and the other was a system-related one from professor Buckland. The findings in this study shows that dyslectic library users often experience difficulties when seeking for materials in the library, due to the libraries organisation of material according to the written language. Through technical aid and a more user-friendly organisation of materials it may be easier to find relevant material for dyslectics.

The aim of this thesis is to study what impact the USA Patriot act has had on American libraries. The authors intent has been to see what changes have occurred in the librarians work-routines and to study their attitudes toward the Patriot act. The authors have also intended to find out what the consequences would be for the libraries. The findings are related to Swedish circumstances. The material used in this thesis consists of six interviews conducted at three libraries in the Bay Area in California.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate how librarians approach to the multicultural collection development and which methods they use in providing library materials in minority languages. The questions to be answered are: which methods the libraries use when purchasing library materials in minority languages, how the respondents experience that the minority user groups needs are met in the library and how the multicultural competence of the staff is used in the libraries. For this purpose the qualitative interviews with 6 librarians in Gothenburg are conducted, mainly from the libraries in the immigrant-dense parts of the city, while the study being concentrated on 6 language groups of library users. The study?s theoretical framework is based on theories of multiculturalism, culture, identity and bilingualism.

The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the collection management at five different hospital libraries´ children and youth?s section to discern different roles of the collections. We made qualitative interviews with five hospital librarians. The purpose was also to see how the collection development affected the different roles of the collections. We used two theories.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how five public libraries reason about the use of social media in their day-to-day work. This thesis aim to answer three research questions: What is the libraries use of social media today? How do libraries look upon their own use of social media? And have the libraries formulated any goals about their use of social media, and what are their thoughts on this? The methodology used in this thesis is a content analysis of the libraries social media and a questionnaire interview which was sent by mail to all of the libraries involved. The theoretical framework for the thesis is a model developed by Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Skot-Hansen.The results of our study shows that the room of meetings, from the theoretical framework, are the most represented in the content of the social media used by the libraries. The libraries find that social media is a good way to connect and communicate with their users, but they feel that the time they spend on their social media is not enough.Our study also shows that most of the libraries have not formulated any goals for their use of social media, and that they do not have any intentions to do so..