The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether Swedish, Internet-based travel agencies, acting on a consumer market are working towards creating added value for their customers. If that is the case, how and why do they use such a mode of operation.The theoretical framework was based on Grönroos´ ?Augmented service offering?, which treats added value as an addition to the core service. The services offered on five of the larger companies´ websites on the market were examined and 3 representatives of the five companies were interviewed.The study shows that 2 of the examined companies did not produce any added value, while 3 of the companies did produce added value for the customer. The added value was generated through packaging of core-, facilitating- and supporting services for the purpose of differentiating the company towards competitors and generating service fees..

Economic changes, globalization and an aging population are phenomena that haveaffected the municipal development in the late 1900s. To address these challenges,cooperation in specific areas between municipalities in the 1990- and 2000's hasincreased. This is referred to in the literature as municipal cooperation. IT is one ofthese areas of collaboration and is seen as a potential solution to streamline municipaloperations. IT implementations are often complex projects involving a large number ofpeople.

TO WORK WITH BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS IN LUND FROM AN ORGANIZATIONAL POINT OF VIEW ALEXANDRA BERTRAM Bertram, A. Degree project in social work 15 Credits. Malmö University: Faculty of health and society, Department of Social Work, 2014. This essay deals with biological mothers whose children are placed in foster care within the municipality of Lund. This essay aimed to describe how social workers in Lund deal with biological mothers from investigation, to treatment. In this essay social workers whom meets biological mothers on an everyday basis have been interviewed about their experience in the field, to gather information.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to find out how information seeking habits and experiences of people in different generations affects their expectations on information retrieval systems like OPAC. Two OPACs are used, one web-OPAC and one mobile-OPAC. The following questions are asked: how can theories about information seeking behaviors explain why and in which way one seeks information? In which way does information seeking behaviors and habits affect the experience of OPAC? Which differences and/or similarities can be found between the web-OPAC and the mobile-OPAC? How does generational aspects affect experiences and preferences in an information seeking context? The theoretical framework of the thesis is information retrieval with several models about information-seeking/searching needs and behaviors. The empirical data contains interviews with nine people in different generations and protocols about two different OPACs.

Citizens? interaction with governments is an area with unique implications for channel management. Governments need to take the citizens perspective into further consideration in order to be successful in delivering high-quality e-services. This paper aims to determine if a categorization of citizen-initiated contacts from a citizen-centric perspective can be a valuable basis for decisions regarding e-service development. The study consisted of three steps.

The object of this essay was to illustrate and analyse what determines that a contract treatment investigation for a drug addict is initiated and what factors influence the investigation itself, from the probation service officer's perspective.We selected the following two questions:- What does the probation service officer see as being the deciding factor for a contract treatment investigation to be initiated?- What questions appear in a contract treatment investigation and how do they influence the investigation, according to the probation service officer?To find answers to these questions we conducted interviews with 11 probation service officers, during November and December 2005, at three different locations across Skåne. We decided to use the qualitative method for collecting the data we needed.In our essay we came to the conclusion that the will and motivation of the client is a deciding factor whether or not a contract treatment investigation is to be initiated. An important collaborator in this process is the social services. According to the probation service officers, many of the problems that may appear in the co-operation are due to the tough economic constraints experienced by the social services.

The Swedish parliament has decided that Sweden should increase its usage of renewable fuel sources to a level of 50% of the total energy consumption in Sweden by the year 2020. One way to reach that goal may be to increase the usage of stumps as a bio-fuel. In Sweden stump harvesting is possible on about 5-10% of the total harvested area and thus contribute with 1,3 - 2,6 TWh per year. An increase stump harvest doesn't come without its drawbacks for the environment. When harvesting stumps a tracked excavator is used to pry the stumps from the ground and then cut the stumps into smaller pieces.

The aim of this study was to analyse ninth graders self reported screen based activities, sedentary time and musculoskeletal symptoms and pain intensity. The other aim was to examine changes regarding musculoskeletal pain and inactivity between ninth graders from a cross sectional study in year 2004. To meet this aim, following questions were designed: How is the relationship between screen based activities, inactivity, musculoskeletal symptoms, pain intensity and differences between girls and boys? How have musculoskeletal symptoms and screen time changed since year 2004?Method: The method used for this study was a quantitative method. The research was carried out using a questionnaire that was answered by pupils from 11 schools from all over Sweden.

Studies of modern communication media such as Cell Phones and so called Instant Messengers are popular today. This study focused on these modern techniques, focused on parents as a target group and on what is important for them in everyday communication.By exploratory using three focus groups it became clear that the children, and the link to them was the absolute most important thing for the parents. It became clear that this link to a great extent today exists through the mobile phone.In a following study a Mobile Instant Messenger called My Friends was introduced. It was used by two families during two weeks to see how it would change the communication within the family. The focus was to see how problems with availability were handled, it turned out that:My friends had a more obvious way of indicating availability than the Cell Phone had.

Operators and Internet service providers invest in broadband to be able to deliver new services that require higher data transmission rate. A way to make this possible is to use ADSL, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, as the access technology. To be able to handle this technology, the service providers should do a pre-qualification. Methods and tools are needed to analyze the local copper lines and decide if these qualify for ADSL with respect to service availability and possible bandwidth through the lines. This report brings up some methods for pre-qualification of ADSL, the important quality parameters and how to gather them from the available services today.

The aim of the study was to examine how child investigators in the police force interpret and apply the notification of preliminary investigation (FuK) and the po-lice act in their child investigative interviews with alleged victims of sexual abuse. Questions at issue were how child investigators relate to FuK 17-19 §§, re-garding child investigative interviews and to FuK 16 § and the police act 3 §, re-garding their co-operation with social services. The theory and method used in this study was Sociology of Law. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight child investigators, one from each police district in Stockholm. The results of the study conclude that despite special qualifications, child investigators may find themselves in difficulty in receiving or interpreting information from chil-dren, therefore they may need to consult a person with expert knowledge.

The main purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate to what extent municipal politicians govern a selected public library. This means to clarify who determines the direction of the library and its services and in what way. It also involves examining the relationship between library staff and local politicians in the decision-making process. Which decisions are made by the politicians and which are left to the employees? The study is based on an investigation of a public library in a municipality over a period of ten years the 1990s.

Background: Trust has been a foundation of commerce since the very beginning. Trust can in the traditional commerce be built by face-to-face meetings, this is not possible at the Internet. Although, trust ought to be important even for the commercial business relation at the Internet and crucial for the consumer to use this communication channel. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is, from a consumer point of view, to study and analyse the importance of trust using e-services. Demarcation: The thesis is focusing trust using e-services, from a consumer point of view.

Public libraries have an important roll of making information accessible to all people. This democratic right supports the cultural development in our society. When public libraries build websites offering information and services it can sometimes cause obstacles for impaired users. It is therefore our purpose to evaluate a selection of websites and library plans to examine how the libraries work with accessibility for these users. This thesis is based on theories of cognitive and human computer interaction, and information architecture.

The purpose of this study was to examine social worker?s own experiences of dealing with gender perspectives in child welfare cases. With a constructionist perspective, this study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews. Six social workers were asked to reflect on their work and their methodology, and how it relates to gender perspectives when assessing children and adolescents in child welfare services.The result shows that there is a lack of control and review that children are given a gender neutral treatment. It also shows that there was no explicit protocol for how to take a gender perspective into account when assessing children and adolescents needs of welfare services.