The focus of this thesis is a specific part of Swedish library policy called library plans. A library plan is a political document created with the purpose of constituting a platform for co-operation between different library systems within a municipality, e.g. through determining and analysing the needs for library activities within municipalities in Sweden.This thesis´ aim is to investigate whether library plans are, or can be used as, a tool for change and thereby increase legitimacy for public libraries in Sweden.We have examined aspects of library plans using theories from change management to determine whether these plans include tools focusing on conditions in organisations that could result in an improved and stronger position in the society for Public Library. Through the use of theories from new institutionalism we opted for an understanding of the interaction between the libraries and the context in which they are part of.Upon examining 23 library plans, we discovered similarities as well as diversities among them. From our study we have drawn the conclusion that it is important to analyse the specific needs of each different municipality and to consider these individual conditions and needs when developing and composing the library plan.

This thesis examines how library employees experience the library as a meeting place. Our questions are: What effect has the concept of a "library as a meeting-place" for library staff?How do they see the library as a meeting place? How do they see their workplace as a venue for meetings? The respondents interviewed work in public libraries. We were inspired by a cultural geographic theory that we re-designed. The following divisions were made in order to give the work a definitive structure:The "mental space"The library as a meeting place on a global and universal level;The "conceived space"Librarians and planners' thinking on the specific library as a meeting place;The "living space"How library staff perceive that the library is used as a meeting place in reality.In our analysis, we use a phenomenographic qualitative interpretive methodology.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate how students at an upper secondary school for adults use school and Public Library when searching for information for school assignments. The focus in this investigation is on the feelings and experiences of the process of the information seeking and use. The focus is also on the students experiences of school and public libraries and the help they receive from them in learning. The method used is focus groups interviews. Two groups were interviewed.

This thesis is a discourse analysis analyzing Public Library librarians' talk on the subject of Public Library meeting places. Within the field of Library and Information Science the public libraries' functions as social meeting places have been scrutinized for more than a decade. Researchers in the Nordic countries in particular have looked at library users' use of the library space and have highlighted the sociologic dimensions of the Public Library and the meeting place functions. Few however have paid much attention to the library personnel's point of view. The discourse analysis perspective is about language use and how people construct the reality.

This paper describes the development of direct and indirect service at the former Gothen­burg city library. This was during this period of time not the Public Library of the town, but a scientific library mostly serving the college, although also open to the public. Furthermore the services offered in Gothenburg are compared with those of the two old Swedish university libraries in Uppsala and Lund. The investigated direct serviceforms are "making material available", "guidance", and "localities". The indirect service areas are "the catalogue" and "the personnel and their competence".The conclusion is that the differences weren't that big and that Gothenburg city library was a modern library providing about the same services as you could find in Uppsala and Lund.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate issues concerning lifelong learning and the role of the public librarian. This is done by examining LärForum Forum for Learning, a project initiated at a Public Library located outside of Stockholm, with the aim of supporting adults lifelong learning. The major questions raised in this study are: How do the seven librarians interviewed define lifelong learning and how do they perceive their own role in relation to lifelong learning in the Public Library? Do they work with adult learners in a different way than they do with "ordinary" users of the library? Has their conception of their own role as a public librarian changed as a result of LärForum, and do they find it necessary to acquire new skills because of the project? Data was collected through interviews and observation, and the study is a qualitative case study. The main results are that the librarians see their role in lifelong learning in the Public Library as self-evident, and they see lifelong learning mostly as learning for an individuals personal development.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine how users at four public libraries experience the alternative shelf arrangement in their library. The purpose of introducing an alternative shelf arrangement in a Public Library is often to facilitate for its users. In each of our chosen libraries, the librarians have arranged the books in the non-fiction section in broad themes, with the Swedish Library Association Classification System as subsections. Using qualitative interviews, we examined a total of 26 users? experience of the shelf arrangement and its accessibility, their methods for seeking information and their opinion about the presentation of the books.

The purpose of this thesis is to research public librarians view ofthe Public Library as a meeting place and how it may contribute tofacilitate social integration. To study this we have asked thefollowing research questions: How do public librarians work withthe Public Library as a meeting place? And how do they contributeconditions for ?soft inclusion??The method we have used for this study is semi-structuredinterviews. Seven public librarians from the Gothenburg areawere interviewed and the empirical material was analyzed usingqualitative content analysis.As a theoretical foundation we have used Dorte Skot-Hansensmodel of the Public Library as a third place and Mikael Stigendalstheory on social inclusion. Furthermore have we used research onthe Public Library as a meeting place and social integration as acomplement to the model and the theory.Conclusions from the material gathered is that public librarianssee the Public Library as a meeting place with potential tocontribute to integrating individuals and groups with one another.The librarians? foremost method was to attract visitors withactivities aimed at certain target groups.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how a Public Library should sign and organize their resources to make them as accessible as possible to the users of the library. Our theory, Paul Arthur?s and Romedi Passini?s wayfinding theory, is about how people search through information loaded environments. Our empirical material consists mainly of three parts: an inventory of the resources and guiding at Hammarö bibliotek, eight interviews with visitors at Hammarö bibliotek and observations of how visitors use and interact with the library, its resources and guiding.

The aim of this study is to examine how important a factor the environment and the interior is to the creation of a user-friendly children?s library. In this study, environment is taken to mean the furnishing and the equipment in the children?s area at the library. The environment plays an important role in society today and because of that this is a current topic.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how some university students, who are using the libraries extensively, use and experience the public and the university library and what they expect from the two different library types. I also compare their expectations with the different tasks and aims of the two library types. To answer this I have interviewed seven students at the department of history of literature at Göteborg University. I have also studied some literature and research related to this subject, for example user studies about students and libraries and the information behaviour of distance students.

The purpose of this thesis is to get knowledge about how it is to work as a librarian at Gothenburg city library during a rebuilding process and during the time when they have worked in a temporary library so called niche library. Which part did they have in the renovation project and in the niche library? The aim is also to find out how the librarians have experienced their time in the niche library and if it has affected their profession and identity.The method that is used to answer questions of the study is semi-structured interviews with four public librarians. Through comparing previous research in building and rebuilding process I have analyzed the four public librarian?s part in the renovating process and the temporary library.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine and analyse how the Public Librarys mission is interpreted and formulated in a selection of library related journals. The journals are both international scientific referee journals from the LIS field and journals with a closer connection to the practitioners within the Public Library field. The idea is that these journals can be seen as windows to an academic theoretic perspective on public libraries, as well as to the practitioners way of talking about the librarys mission. The study also aims to examine if there is a difference in the way that the librarys mission is interpreted and discussed among theorists and among practitioners within the field. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory, and the method is text analytic.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore what possibilities Swedish Public Library has to work with and promote integration. The possibilities are examined on the basis of internal requirements of integration, the role of Public Library in the civil society and its policy documents. Further, the thesis examines what Swedish National library politics could contribute to this particular field. The experience of integration politics shows that a genuine commitment from all parts of the society is required in order to build an integrated society. The part of a society that public libraries are closest to and have the greatest impact on is undoubtedly the civil society.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis is to describe and analyze the implementation of Facebook in a Public Library. A case study consisting of qualitative interviews and studies of documents containing goals for the library has been conducted at a Public Library going through the process of implementing Facebook in their operations. The theoretical framework for this study consists of Everett M. Rogers?s stages of the innovation-decision process and his characteristics of innovations as perceived by individuals.