This two years master?s thesis in Library and Information Sciences aims to investigate and put the services of 118100 Svar På Allt (SPA, an SMS mobile question and answer service) and Fråga biblioteket (FB, a library operated e-mail reference service) into the context of the reference encounter. Questions sent to SPA and their subsequent answers are analysed, and part of these questions are forwarded to FB for comparative studies. Both of the formats are compared to the reference encounter as a whole. The framing of the question originates in the assumption that there may be a need for further negotiation of the questions submitted to the aforementioned formats.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the information seeking of lay politicians, part-time politicians and professional politicians in connection with the possible upcoming fusion of the two administrative regions, Västra Götaland and Värmland. The focus of this study has been to study how politicians use and evaluate information and sources of information, and to investigate if there are any differences in how different categories of politicians seek information. Seven politicians were interviewed using semi-structured questions, and a phenomenographic approach was used to analyze the data. In Sweden there are few available studies of how politician seek information, but some international studies have focused on information needs, information sources, selection and evaluation of information. I have used previous research, and data from respondents to compile and analyze my results in three descriptive categories.

AbstractAim: The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper knowledge of how nurse anesthetists feel about their own profession. It was hoped that by gaining a deeper understanding of how the nurse anesthetist is experiencing its own profession, it will create better conditions for development and evolution of the nurse anesthesia profession and skills. Method: for the study a qualitative approach was used in which ten anesthesia nurses were interviewed, aged 27-55 years, four men and six women participated in the study. The interviews were processed and analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. As a theoretical framework Patricia Benner seven skill domains was used.

This master thesis is based on a general issue of quality in social services. I have chosen to illustrate through an empirical case, namely the position social responsibility coordinator and shortened SAS.This position is fairly new to the Swedish social services and has the overall mandate to monitor, develop and ensure quality.To study this, I have developed two analytic schemes. One is based on the concept of quality value components, the second is based on the concept of quality character components. These analytical schemes are used as the presented material. When I study mycase, I have used two methods, documents and questionnaires.In this study I will try to describe how new solutions to improve the quality of social services can conform and develop.

The aim of this study is to contribute knowledge about how preschool teachers reason around their role in the work with children being maltreated. The study has been based on the following questions: How do the preschool teachers identify children being maltreated ? How do the preschool teachers act after they have identified a child thats being maltreated? What difficulties experienced preschool teachers based on their professional roles related to child maltreatment? The method used in the study is a focus group interview, which is a kind of informal group discussion. The result shows that there are difficulties in the preschool regarding the work with children being maltreated. Some of the difficulties that the preschool teachers raised was the contact with the guardians, society?s negative perception of the social services, that all the notifications must go through the pre-school manager and that they don?t have so much experience of notifications. .

The title of this essay is ?Collaboration between social services and schools?. Research shows that many children and youth who are badly treated are not noticed and do not receive the help that they need. This could be due to the lack of collaboration between different authorities and professionals. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the social services and schools are collaborating in terms of children and youth who are badly treated or is at risk of being badly treated and to identify what factors make collaboration possible and hinder it.

Background: Many companies have outsourced their IT-operations and their expectations of what this IT-outsourcing will contribute to the business are high. Cost cuts are not always a natural outcome of IT-outsourcing. Many companies that have outsourced their IT-operations consider it to be problematic and complex to exercise management control and reach cost control which was the purpose of the IT-outsourcing. Purpose: To describe and analyze what affect IT-outsourcing has on a company?s management control system and a company?s possibility to exercise cost control.

För ett serviceföretag är det väsentligt att kunna leverera tjänstekvalitet för att tillfredsställa kunden. Tjänsternas immateriella produktkaraktär gör det emellertid svårt för serviceleverantören i allmänhet och professionella tjänsteleverantörer i synnerhet att säkerställa kvalitet. Syftet med detta arbete är att utveckla en kontrollmodell som kan användas av professionella tjänsteleverantörer som ett hjälpmedel i arbetet att säkra servicekvalitet. Modellen bygger på relevant teori och består av tre kvalitetskategorier ? image, teknisk kvalitet och funktionell kvalitet ? genom vilka 13 kvalitetsdimensioner behandlas.

Background: Companies and organizations of today spend large amounts of money on IT-based business solutions. Such business solutions normally include business- consulting and software-creation (IT-related services). Due to the rapid development of the technology within this field of business the IT-customers find it difficult to select among potential suppliers on objective grounds.Purpose: To increase the understanding for the professionl approach of the people involved in the sales- and purchase process of IT-related services in a business-to-business context. The study is taking the buyers'as well as the sellers'perspective into account when analyzing the process. Method: The empirical findings were collected from eight companies in Linköping and Stockholm.

The aim of this study was to illuminate how social workers in social services work with the social phenomenon, homelessness in two municipalities. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with interviewees from a department of social services. Our theories that we used was resistant inequality, structural discrimination, exclusion, empowerment and representation. After compilation of our empirical our conclusions are that homelessness is a complex phenomenon. Social workers handles homelessness based on client?s needs and the work is individualized.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the possibilities of, and interest in, a digital download service at the music departments of the libraries. I chose to conduct my study at the city library of Gothenburg. I studied the legal download services that exist today and I did a statistical survey among the users of the music department, followed up by interviews to see how they took to the idea. From the inquiry I learned that a majority of the users was negative to having a digital service replacing the physical department, although a majority was positive to try a digital service. I also used the inquiry to compare the reasons for downloading music to the reasons for borrowing records from the library, but there was no significant difference.

Idag går utvecklingen mot alltmer distribuerade IT-system där en grupp datorer kommunicerar med varandra. Detta gäller för sökmotorer, beräkningsintensiva miljöer och även för den svenska försvarsmaktens ledningssystem.För att systemen ska kunna kommunicera så flexibelt som möjligt vill man ofta att kommunikationen ska ske enligt standardiserade protokoll vilka är oberoende av datorplattform, programmeringsspråk och transportprotokoll. Ett koncept som kan användas för denna sorts kommunikation är Web Services vilket är ett koncept där meddelanden skickas XML-formaterade över valfritt kommunikationsprotokoll.För att möjliggöra utbyte av känsligt data som inte får nås av obehöriga måste kommunikationen stöttas av ett flertal viktiga säkerhetsfunktioner. En av dessa funktioner är användarautentisering vilket innebär att användarens identitet kan verifieras.För att möjliggöra användarautentisering kan digitala certifikat och asymmetriska kryptooperationer användas, denna typ av operationer är prestandakrävande varför ?Single Sign On? eftersträvas.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

The manufactory industry, due to decline in profit margins, is seeking new business opportunities by moving towards servitization and value-adding services in after-sales. We have therefore conducted a case study to investigate a manufacturing company in their current transformation towards servitization. By studying the management perspective, we aimed to understand how Information Technology, by adding value, could play a role in the transformation process. This study shows that information technology can take an integrating role, by supporting new value-adding services to provider and customer, as well as a co-creating role, where both provider and customer benefits by learning from each other, in the changing work process initiated by new services. The study has also shown that Information Technology, together with organization, information and people, are crucial components in the manufactory industry?s transformation towards servitization.  Furthermore, the study has also shown that the value chain has the potential to drastically change due to the value-adding that the information technology brings to the progress of servitization..

The main purpose of this essay was to study how the social service and the lawcourt have implemented the UN Convention on the Right of the Child, particularly incorporating the childs best interest in social services, child welfare investigations and the lawcourts judgement. We considered how the needs of the child, and the will and view of the child was documented. Also how the parents capacity and the environment factors, were documented in the social services investigations and the lawcourts judgement. The study was based both as a literature study and a document analysis. We analysed ten child welfare investigations from a social service office and their belonging lawcourt judgements.Our conclusion of the study is that the child is in focus both in the investigations and in judgement.