This master?s thesis will try to describe the beginning and development towards a modern public library of the town library in Karlskrona between 1906 and 1959. The specific years refers to the year the library was established and the year it moved to the new library building in the centre of Karlskrona. The aim of the thesis has been to do this historical description and to look at the course from the perspective of the national policies and development for the Swedish modern public library. The thesis is based mainly on reports of the proceedings of the public library and other biographical documents and literature, which has been found in two local archives.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

Title: Det bortglömda valet? ? En kvantitativ undersökning av mediernas bevakning kring Europaparlamentsvalet 2009Authors: Elin Kullander and Sara LundinSubject: The media coverage of the election of the European parliament 2009Term: Spring 2014Supervisor: Mats Ekström, JMG, Gothenburg UniversityPages/words: 44/11 065Purpose: The purpose has been to investigate how great the media coverage was on the European parliament elections in 2009 and then compare the result to previous elections. The discussion is based on media?s role as a multiplier in a democracy.Method: We have used a quantitative method and studied the media coverage in four Swedish newspapers 23 days before the Swedish election on 7th of June 2009.Results: We have come to the conclusion that media is in fact meeting its democratic role as a multiplier, in any case as long as we only take in conclusion the amount of articles that has been published. We have seen that the media coverage for the first time has increased both in number of articles and in how big the articles were.

Geographical indications designate products which have a specific geographical origin, which can either be national, regional or local. The subject is complicated since geographical indications arises a large number of questions There are EC regulations which regulate the protection of geographical indications, but since the field has not yet been exhaustively harmonized, the existence of national rules of protection is therefore still possible, which can lead to trade barriers between the member states. Consequently, one problem consists in whether it may be legitimate to restrict the free movement of goods by article 28 in the EC Treaty by referring to national rules of protection and to what extent such measures may be justified by article 30 or by the Cassis doctrine. An additional question consists in how the line between geographical indications and generic terms is to be established appropriately. Further, geographical indications are exposed to improper use by other dishonest commercial operators and therefore the possibilities of protection against unfair competition and misleading are also discussed in the thesis.

Close to the city center of Reykjavik lies the combined national- and university library of Iceland. Usually, these two types of institutions are separated. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the library in fact selects the new digital material to offer the users in Iceland, and if the combined mission creates any problems or conflicts.The investigation examines the planning and the content of the digital library, what user groups are addressed and how the organisation is held together despite the different missions. If cultural context in Iceland makes a difference for what is selected and offered to the users is also discussed.Six informants in strategic library positions dealing with the digital national- or university library, were interviewed. The answers have been analysed in light of the library&information literature on building and maintaining digital library collections and organizational and marketing theory.The main result of the study is that the informants do not see a conflict between the missions of the organisation, although traces of a struggle were found in some areas.

The main aim of this thesis is to introduce a normative perspective to surveillance studies. I examine how the use of videocameras or CCTV-systems can create a social sorting and, then, try to answer why it ought to be reconstructed based on a normative study.For the empirical analysis I use Foucaults theory about the panopticon, maintained by the psychological subjection of the common citizen in the modern world, together with Lianos theory of a more socio-cultural surveillance in the post-modern world. The empirical examination is, furthermore, guided by a theory that describes the construction of the stranger, which today, is not explicitly excluded, because everyone is a stranger in some way, but rather depicted as the other due to institutionalization.The post-modern society today can no longer be built upon a common or divine moral or norm. Thus, I have chosen a normative method, using a deliberative democracy derived from Habermas, focusing on the communicative practice, that can engage and include every citizen in a democratic process. This is necessary for both deciding whether videocameras should be installed and whom and why some should be under surveillance ? to avoid a social sorting that both can constitute and undermine social trust and increase the gap between the governing and the governed..

Sweden has a long tradition of collecting documents by way of a process of legal deposit of copies. Its aim is to ensure the availability of material for research, cultural preservation and citizens? right to free information. New forms of publications, made possible by technical advances, are not accommodated in the traditional deposit submission criteria. Certain information accordingly risks being lost.

The aim of this paper is to apply Robert N. Bellahs theory of civil religion, within a Swedish societal context. Bellahs theory was designed in, and influenced by American culture. Therefore, the ?translation? of Bellahs theory does not come without problems.

In April 2010 Vägverket (the Swedish National Road Agency) andBanverket (the Swedish National Railway Agency) will merge intoTrafikverket (the Swedish National Traffic Agency). Trafikverket willassume unified responsibility for the risk management that atpresent is responsibility of Vägverket and Banverket separately. Atpresent, as it will be shown in this thesis, Vägverket and Banverketshare the same theoretical background for risk management but usedifferent implementations often within the same agency. The use ofdifferent implementations results in a reduced transparency of therisk management both within and outside the agencies: this willbecome even more problematic when they will be fused intoTrafikverket.The aim of this thesis is to review the current risk managementmethodologies used at Vägverket and Banverket and to suggest aunified tool for the risk management at Trafikverket. This will bedone by focusing in particular on construction projects, one fromVägverket (Partihallsförbindelsen) and one from Banverket(Nynäsbanan).

This thesis examines the reasons to why railway projects conducted by Banverket (Swedish National Rail Administration) could be expected to cause significant effects on the environment, on which grounds the County Administrative Board and Swedish National Rail Administration base their decisions/assumptions and highlight regional differences between the different Swedish national rail administrations regions. Total 24 railway projects, conducted or being conducted, during the time period 2001 - January 2010 have been analyzed and studied. These projects represent eight different measures/activities which are dispersed throughout all five of the Swedish National Rail Administration´s different regions. Swedish legislations demands that the planner of a new railway project shall first conduct a pre-study and then conduct a public consultation which provides the participants an opportunity to provide input. The County Administrative Board shall then decide if the project could cause significant effects on the environment.

The structure of the Swedish public library field has been evolving during the last decades. The traditional mission of educating the citizens to become responsible, democratic and knowledgeable members of society has in a way led to the integration between public and school libraries. Lately new co-operational models have been under debate and a sense of resistance has arisen because of the economical and market influences. In parallel with closure of library branches new libraries have evolved in malls and wash houses and some with self-service with no use of librarians. This work shows how co-operation in rural areas finds the common goals for the people living there who are concerned about keeping the service needed including the public library and thus using existing means and crossing borders of commercial thinking.

In January 2007 the Öresund committy changed its statutes to become a more politically oriented lobby organization. This change can be interpreted as one part of a continuously evolving process where the Öresund region is emancipating itself from the national states in a multi-level European environment. By focusing on this latest development the thesis puts forward the importance of political institutions, as well as politicians and civil servants as actors in them, as crucial factors in the process where the region is gaining political power. The thesis shows how the political cross-border cooperation in the Öresund region is being institutionalized which affects its power relations to other levels in the multi-level system, predominantly the national states. In other words, there is a connection between power and institutionalization.The Öresund committee has by gaining better access to policymaking agendas on the national levels proven that the organizational change has already started to bear fruit.

National libraries hold large, valuable repositories of often unique materials. How can we ensure that the knowledge is accessible without endangering the materials that hold the knowledge? Digital preservation is meant to solve this problem. With more and more material being accessible digitally, users are expected to do more and more of the finding on their own, instead of being guided by librarians. What kind of knowledge do the librarians have, that cannot be mediated through a system? How is the knowledge of experienced librarians passed on to new librarians? What is the difference between physical and digital materials? I have interviewed senior and junior librarians of Det Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen, Nasjonalbiblioteket in Oslo, the National Library in Helsinki, and Kungliga Biblioteket in Stockholm to learn about their journey to knowledge of their collections.

This essay examines the debate that arose in connection to the sale of Carl Larsson?s monumental painting Midvinterblot in 1987. My main purpose is to examine which meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot and in which way the debate influenced the paintings significance as cultural heritage. I will therefore argue that the debate initiated a renegotitation of the paintings meaning as cultural heritage. In the debate the debaters emphasized the National Museum?s responsibility over cultural heritage, Midvinterblots aestethic, the paintings economic value and its national implications.

AimThe study aims were to identify young adults? sources of nutritional advice on the Internet and how they perceive the credibility of these. The study also aimed at exploring young adults' knowledge of national recommendations issued by the National Food Agency.MethodA web-based survey was distributed on the social media platform Facebook. The questionnaire contained a total of 14 questions regarding online nutritional advice and its credibility. Finally, it requested the respondent's knowledge and credibility of the national nutritional recommendations.