Rapid development in the realms of electronic publishing has had a profound impact on information services in general and the academic library in particular. Since mid 1990´s an increasingly number of scholarly journals and other information resources have been made available electronically. Electronic books are the newest electronic service in the hybrid library and can be seen as the third wave in the digital library. Although electronic books have for a long time existed as electronic texts such as digitalized classics or other texts in the public domain, it is not until recently that e-books have been distributed and packaged in a commercial form. As more e-book models are being developed, libraries are being forced to take e-books into consideration when planning their information services.The aim of this master thesis is to describe the first stage of implementation of the new electronic media, the electronic book or e-book, in Swedish academic libraries.

Four different kinds of filter-materials with reactive surfaces have been studied concerning their capacity to absorb heavy metals in leachate from a municipal waste deposit. The heavy metals studied were: lead, cadmium, copper, mercury, chromium, nickel and zinc. The leachate contains high levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and has a high pH-value along with a high buffer capacity. These characteristics of the leachate make it difficult to remove pollutants and require efficient filters. The filters that were examined in the report are blast-furnace slag with CaO, sand covered with iron oxides, olivine and nepheline.

The aim of this master thesis is to study how the development of a public library by means of ideas and methods from the private sector can be related to traditional core values. We base our study on institutional theory, which focuses on norms and values in an organisation, and new institutional theory, which focuses on how organisations are influenced by changes in the environment. We also use New Public Management with a market focus to analyze the implications of a development towards a more market oriented view.The method used is that of a case study of a new library concept, Idea Stores in London. Idea Stores are a number of new public libraries in Tower Hamlets developed from the results of a major opinion survey about libraries. The Idea Stores combine traditional library services with elements of adult education and lifelong learning in a partnership with local learning centres.

This Masters thesis concerns computer games in Swedish public libraries. We have investigated the opinions of public librarians concerning what they think about computer games, and to what extent they believe it should be a part of the public library. The method we have chosen is qualitative interviews. The theory we have used is a pedagogical literature strategy, which we have reformulated so that it fits our investigation. The results show that the interviewed public librarians think that the library should offer computer games for children and youths to use at the library, and that they should offer computer games for lending, to all the library users.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to explore how public libraries in a successful way can work in projects with young people. It intends to point out different factors that in a legible way affect the accomplishment and outcome of the project. Another purpose of the study is to uncover the various approaches existing within the projects towards young people and to find out why it is seen as important to work with youngsters, considering the hard work that it requires and the reluctance of the young to visit the library. The examination is based upon eight different and fulfilled projects. Information about these has been received through project descriptions, project reports and documents describing applications for economical benefits.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine reading groups inpublic libraries from a bibliotherapeutic perspective. Inorder to reach this purpose following questions needed to beanswered: What does the discussion in reading groups looklike? What does the reading groups fulfill for theirparticipants? What is the circle leaders? role? The study isbased on the observations of three reading groups and offive interviews of its participants. With the help of CarolineShrodes theory the study shows that there are few signs ofbibliotherapy in the reading groups. But on the other handthey show similarities with other bibliotherapeutic readinggroups, by being a social venue for its participants.

Bakgrunden till studien är de förändringar i form av minskade produktionsstopp som Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) infört från och med sommaren 2005. Detta har inneburit att vissa produktionsområden stänger ner sin tillverkning från fyra veckor till inga produktionsstopp under sommaren. Syftet med undersökningen har varit att undersöka hur arbetsfördelning, kommunikation och samordning har skett mellan nyckelaktörer på SMT inför rekryteringen av semesterersättare år 2007. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod där vi genomfört åtta stycken halvstrukturerade intervjuer och granskat dokument, såsom processbeskrivning och rekryteringspolicy för semesterprocessen. Resultatet har visat på svårigheter i kommunikation och samverkan som vi främst tror har grundat sig i otydliga roller i arbetsfördelning inom processen, då kontaktmannen både har agerat som personalman och kontaktman till de berörda första linjens chefer vi har intervjuat..

The purpose of this study is to examine the view of Swedish language teachers on the role of fiction and of school libraries within the compulsory school?s teaching of Swedish of form 6-9. The questions to be answered are:? What part do Swedish language teachers (hereafter called teachers) think fiction is playing regarding the pupils inclination to read and reading promotion?? What is the attitude of teachers regarding the function of fiction in the Swedish subject?? What do teachers consider being the role of the school library in education, and can this be related to the local school library resources?To answer the questions a questionnaire was sent out to thirty-five teachers. Four qualitative interviews were also carried out among the fourteen teachers that answered the questionnaire.

.The Whole language program is in Sweden generally referred to as ?Kiwimetoden? - ?the Kiwi program? (author?s direct translation) partly due to the fact that the Whole language program originates from New Zealand. Whole language is basically a literacy program and approaches literacy from a holistic point of view. Children learning to read and write should do so in the same natural way children learn to speak their native language which is in the context of authentic language as a whole. In Sweden the program is generally practiced together with a commercial and pre-organised material called ?kiwi? or ?Stjärnsvenska?.

The aim of this study is to examine the historical information about women?s libraries and book ownership during the early modern period in the work of Carl Magnus Carlander, Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris [Swedish libraries and ex-libris] (1904) and to inquire the scientific value of the information. A gender perspective is applied to the study. Gender is understood as a social and cultural constructed concept, dealing with female and male identities as interdependent categories.The study of Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris is made using source criticism and it has two parts. The first part deals with external conditions of the creation of the work; the life of C.

The usability of the Internet increases for every year. The Weblog phenomenon makes it possible for anyone to easily publish, find information and get in touch with other people through the net. This Essay treats the possibilities the Weblog medium offer Swedish libraries and librarians in library contexts. The purpose of the study is to examine the Web phenomenon: Weblogs, and their significance for a total of eleven Library Heads and librarians together with their view on the Weblog activity at each library connected Weblog, to get comprehension and new knowledge on the usability of Weblogs in the library sector. The foundation for the Essay consists of a qualitative interview study, built on asynchronous e-mail interviews and telephone interviews with blogging librarians and Heads of libraries.

This thesis is an investigation of Iranian immigrants and their use of libraries in Sweden. It isbased on a combination of a qualitative and a·quantitative method.Using a qualitative method, I give an outline of the history of lran from ancient times up to the present, as well as the different ethnological groups in Iran and their cultures. The main objective of this part is to clarify the contrasts between Iranian and Swedish cultural, social, linguistic and family structures, and also the characteristics of the crisis that most immigrants go through on their arrival in the new country. The qualitative method also involves structured telephone interviews with eight highly educated Iranians.This method was supplemented by a quantitative study through questionnaires of the attitudes· of lranian immigrants to libraries and reading. Iranians in Sweden turned out to be frequent Iibrary users.

Institutional repositories are now being created to manage, preserve, and maintain the digital assets and intellectual output of a university. The incentives to change the process of scholarly communication have also begun serving as a strong motivator. There are problems to consider and questions to be solved when dealing with electronic publishing and the implementation of institutional repositories. At present time no summary exists regarding the activities of scholarly electronic publishing at Swedish universities and university colleges.This Master's thesis aims to describe the current situation regarding electronic publishing and the development of institutional repositories at Swedish universities and university colleges. To investigate the situation, a questionnaire was sent out to 38 academic libraries since they are normally responsible for the electronic publishing within institutions of higher education.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate what kinds of writing activities that are offered to children and young people in Sweden and if, how and why libraries are involved with them. The issues illuminated in this thesis are how children and youth can be motivated and advance in their writing, what the purpose of writing activities can be, and if writing activities can be suitable as a part of the work in libraries. The theory is based on a study with writing youth made by Catharina Nyström. In order to study the issues six interviews have been completed with persons who all have played a part in writing activities for children and youth.

This is a study about the communication interaction in the context of the reference work at some public university-libraries and some private company libraries in Gothenburg and Borås. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the communication interaction in a library situation. The second purpose is to deepen the knowledge, understanding and to establish what is important in this communication. Focus has been on how the intermediaries communicate and how she or he perceives this communication. The intermediary needs to manage the communication with all the different patrons and different information needs of the patrons.