This essay points at the importance of public libraries as arenas of meetings between refugees and the local population, and by this - creating social kapital in the society as a whole. The researchers Aabø, Audunson and Vårheim have created theories about low-intensive meeting places, that means ? neutral, public places where accidential meetings with different strangers can happen, which can create social capital and trust among each other. To complement these theories I also use Vårheim who have implementet social capital-theories to the sphere of public libraries. These two theories complement each other and can help me investigate two public libraries in a rural area in Sweden.

In this Master's thesis we investigate the collection management regarding fiction for adults. The apprehension of fiction has changed over the years. From the beginning it was considered to be mostly educational rather than being the purpose of entertainment. As for today these views are not opposites to each other. Regarding this we discuss the problem concerning terms of quality.

The aim of this thesis is to study how the recent introduction of video games in Swedish public libraries compares to past introductions of other medias, namely music records, sequential art, manga (Japanese comics), and films on video. In what ways does the introduction of video games differ from the other examples of introductions and in what ways are they alike? In what manner have the medias been introduced? How does the librarians views on video games differ from their views on other medias? The purpose of doing this is that by investigating how new medias have been evaluated in the past, we might gain an understanding of how the introduction of video games links into that tradition. Theoretically, this thesis is grounded in Sanna Talja?s theory of the interpretative repertoires of the music library.

The aim of this two years master thesis is to explore the relationship between public libraries and deaf adults. I want to know if deaf adults are a prioritized group in Swedish public libraries. Deaf adults use Swedish sign language witch is a visual language and differs from Swedish. I discuss the difference in Swedish Sign Language and Swedish and the importance of Sign Language literature. I also explore what methods can be used for mak-ing the library service towards the deaf group more customer centered and service oriented.The lack of sign language knowledge among the library personnel can lead to communication barriers.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to describe the development of the most important libraries in Skövde, starting from 1830. We conclude our examination about 1940, when the municipal library has been active for almost ten years, and the libraries started by the temperance and working-class movements have been deposited at the municipal library. In order to explain this process we describe the development of the Swedish public library and its predecessors, such as reading societies and the popular national movements? libraries, as a background and comparison to the early libraries in Skövde.

Thesis in Musicology and Artistic Practice by Anders Soldh. Part of the work for the master?s degree. Studies from School of Music, Theatre and Art, University of O?rebro, 2007.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the transition from SAB to DDC in the public libraries of Sigtuna.More specifically, it aims at investigating why the decision was made to adopt the DDC and how the system has been implemented. Particular attention is drawn to the difficulties and problems that have arisen while organising the libraries open shelves with DDC and to the ways in which the difficulties have been handled. These questions are examined through a pragmatic perspective on Knowledge Organization that focuses on the contexts and domains in which the classification system is used. The empirical material is drawn from qualitative interviews with the former director of Sigtuna public libraries and with the in-charge of the catalogue department.                                                                   .

This bachelor´s thesis analyzes the debate in a number of Swedish media regarding the introduction of video games as a new medium in the public libraries. The theory and method used is discourse analysis. Three questions were asked: how the introduction of video games as a new media in libraries is discussed, how is it motivated and in what way the authors of the articles analyzed are speaking about new media and the mission of the library. The selected articles were divided into four themes and the analysis resulted in the identification of two main discourses, one which is positive to the introduction and integration of new media in the libraries? collections, and one which has a more negative approach and uses quality and culture as an argument. The conclusion is that video games are a medium so widely used that librarians have to decide whether or not they want to include it in the libraries? collections, and by deciding this they reveal their attitude towards the mission and purpose of the public library..

This masters thesis is a study of official political documents in order to discuss privatisation and the Swedish public libraries. In the 1990s public libraries became placed on contractors, and that was said to be one form of privatisation. The main issue for this study concerns driving forces and obstacles for privatisation of public libraries. Another issue concerns advantages and risks. We will also discuss how the future of public libraries will be in this context.

The major aim of the thesis is to describe the networks, relations and marketing of some university libraries and their customers in the year 2000. I illustrate how these issues interact and whether they have changed due to the recent development of technology and if so, how. The thesis is based on interviews with two directors of libraries and two librarians at two different libraries. A small survey with 16 questionnaires has also been performed in order to get a more general view on librarians' opinions in these questions. The thesis mainly shows that the networks in which the respondents take part primarily exist in the library sphere and towards the universities.

The Swedish government has made the decision to transform the talking book system from an analogue system to a digital system called DAISY by the end of 2004. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how public libraries are affected by this system change. This is carried out by studying the current situation in public libraries concerning the transition to DAISY. This qualitative oriented study is primarily based on interviews with four librarians and three library managers at six public libraries. Management by objectives is here seen as a suitably theoretical framework since public municipal libraries are partly regulated by the governments goals and laws.

This thesis strives to demonstrate my increasingly phenomenological approach to musical composition in relation to the extensive body of musical works connected in different ways to the poetry collection ORDER by the Swedish author and play-wright Lars Norén. The hand, the touch, the voice, the space (environment) and its philosophical implications are scrutinised from a poetic perspective (my poetics). The question of language (the word), the sign (text), sound/noise/music and its immanent bodily qualities are focused and questioned in my own work as well as in primarily two case studies of the music of Pierluigi Billone (1960-) and Morton Feldman (1926-1987).The text reflects the emancipatory process my music has undergone the last 4- 5 years: moving away from language and text (representation) to body and sound, although preserving and nurturing the extended idea of the sign (as signification of sound and body) as a possible embodied vehicle in my composing and artistic thinking.The reader is invited through the extensive use of sketches and work methods to witness and follow this process as a manifestation of the ?doing? rather than the presentation or construction of an analysis in an academic sense.The thesis offers no solution and it fails to encapsulate all of the so-called ORDER-MUSIC (the music that is connected with Norén's collection of poetry) Instead it proposes a possible way of ?opening? the process to a basically phenomenological methodology inside the musical field of score based chamber music..

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 underlying purpose of this study is to investigate how the libraries in Sweden organize and administrate the service of providing literature in other languages than Swedish. The study focuses on the central guiding principles that regulate the provision of multilingual literature and how these guidelines are implemented in to practice at the libraries. As the guidelines are closely connected to the official discourse in Sweden concerning policies targeted towards immigrants, the guidelines will be examined from a perspective of integration politics. To assemble data a survey has been conducted looking into factors such as how the libraries perceive the guidelines, how the libraries do business intelligence and user inquires to reach out to the users of the multilingual media, forms for statistics and method of working. The results points out that the libraries in their work with multilingual media are confronted with three tensions; the first tension is that between the libraries aim to promote equality and freedom for the individual and at the same time to fulfil certain collective interests and goals.

This thesis is about new technology in academic libraries in the form of Patron Driven Acquisition. As libraries take part in the digital era, a new model of patron driven acquisition has emerged. This model gives users more influence over the libraries electronic book collection. The collection development model changes libraries traditional role in the collection development process, from collecting for the future to the present.The purpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge of what acquisition librarians think about the effects of PDA on the collection, the acquisitions role and the cost structure. The theoretical framework relies on Christensen?s theory about disruptive technology and was used to interpret outcomes of new technology in libraries and its staff.Five librarians from four different Swedish university libraries were interviewed using a qualitative semi-structured method to carry out the investigative part of this thesis.