This Masters thesis in Library and Information Science has the title The New Information Desks at Malmö Public Library . During the rebuilding of the library in Malmö a new information desk was developed. This desk differs to a great extent from conventional information desks used in libraries. The information desk is triangular with rounded edges which allows the librarian and the user of the library to work side by side without any physical barriers. The aim of this thesis is to explore the requirements for the information desks formulated by the library and how they are perceived by the librarians and the users of the library.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the library needs of fourteen-to-fifteen-year-olds. We have limited the investigation to the significance of libraries for the teenagers in their leisure time. Our focus is the Public Library with a particular reference to the plans for a new local Public Library with a youth profile in Malmö. With a departure point in the idea that young people?s use and view of libraries is to a large extent depending on factors such as social and cultural background and lifestyle, we chose to do a qualitative interview study with eight teenagers.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to gain a deeper understanding of and examine how library blogs are realized at public libraries together with the views among librarians regarding the realization of library blogs.The questions we wanted to answer were: ? How is the library blog realized at the public libraries in this study? ? What are the views among the librarians in this study regarding the realization of the library blogs?The analytical model in this thesis is Connie Crosby?s six steps on how libraries successfully can realize their blogs. Four of the six steps were selected: planning, implementation, marketing and measures of success. The methodology used for this study was semi-structured interviews. Two interviews were conducted with three librarians that have partial responsibility of their respective library blogs.The results of the study show that the process of the library blog can look different in different libraries, and that the respondents had clear views on how the realization of a blog should be done.

The present study deals with the usage of the school library for upper secondary school students. Is it a place for working or studying? The questions are:? What do the students say they use their school library for?? Are there any differences between students in theoretical programs and students in practical programs with regard to their use of the school library?? What are the features of the ideal library from a students? point of view? My study represents a user?s perspective. The investigation is both quantitative and qualitative. Eighty-two inquiries from four different classes, representing two theoretical and two practical programs were carried out.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the Public Library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

The purpose of this Masters Thesis is to explore the process of selection that librarians face when selecting and acquiring cultural magazines to public libraries. The methods used are qualitative interviews and literary studies. A brief review is given of acquisition policies at public libraries and of cultural magazines and the important role they play in public libraries. Five interviews have been made at five public libraries to find out what factors affect the process of selection when it comes to cultural magazines. Two theories are used as a basis for the analysis of the result of the interviews and literary studies.

Ten years ago the public computers with Internet access were introduced in the public libraries. The purpose of the public computers was to give the possibility of searching information. Along with the Internet came also communication media like chat and e-mail. This type of communication was a new function for the libraries and the reactions among the librarians were mixed. It has been a source of big frustration and attempts to block it has not succeeded.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the library of Workers´ Educational Association in the community of Oskarström. This library is special because the organisation run it much longer than usual, until 1977, and to find an answer to why, we have the following questions: Why does the library of Workers´ Educational Association start their activity in Oskarström, and how does it develop, in relation to premises, librarians, financing, the stock of books and the numbers of books out on loan? What is the reason that the library in Oskarström is municipalized as late as 1977? The methods we use are hermeneutics and evaluation of the sources. The library is founded in 1914 and become important for the workers. Important sources of income are the subventions given by the state, municipality and other associations.

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to describe the phenomenon ofmarketing. Four public libraries in the County of Kalmar have beenstudied in the aim to obtain information on their current marketingin the autumn of 2004, as well as their view of marketing and itssignification in connection to a vision that the Regional Library inKalmar has established. The vision is that the County of Kalmar isgoing to be the best Region of Libraries in Sweden in the year of2010. Target markets for the vision is the general public, studentsand entrepreneurs. The study has done a landing at an early stage ofthe vision, the starting point of which was in the year of 2001.

The aim of this master thesis is to study if the websites of the Swedish public libraries are accessible to all people. According to the library law all people must have access to the public libraries and their information services. Today, when the Internet is one of the largest sources of information, it is important that all people, including those with different kind of disabilities, children, elderly, immigrants and people with old technical equipment, have access to the public libraries websites.We have in this study considered the graphic user interface, the language, the structure and the navigation possibilities at ten Public Library websites. We have from a checklist of our own, based upon the opinion of different experts such as Jacob Nielsen and Tommy Sundström, investigated the websites.The main finding of our study is that the websites are generally accessible even thou we found a lack of accessible for immigrants. Most of the websites had some pages in English, but none hade all pages in this language.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the surrounding world and the library with respect to the library?s need to provide a Library 2.0 web site. We also explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual library. Our research objects are the public libraries of Stockholm and the Umeå region, that maintain the web sites Biblioteket.se and minabibliotek.se respectively. By applying Dorte Skot-Hansen's theory of rationales we found that the Stockholm Public Library is acting in accordance with the experience rationale, whereas the libraries of Umeå are influenced by the instrumental rationale.

This study examines the cultural place and status of video and computer games in the Swedish Public Library. Using works on popular culture and the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this study employs quantitative methods, as well as textual analysis, to analyze the results of an online questionnaire with 19 questions focusing on selection criteria, shelf placement, perceived competence, as well as reasoning for having or not having these games in the library. 286 out of the 440 libraries contacted is participating in the study, and the libraries consist exclusively of public libraries in Sweden that are found in the database of the Royal Library.The results of this study show that a larger number of libraries than previously indicated have started to provide electronic games to their patrons. At the same time, patterns in the data and comments suggests that these games in many cases still do not enjoy the same level of cultural recognition as other media. Indicative of this is the way most libraries seem to focus on the medium being exclusively for their young patrons, with seem-ingly very little in the way of investment for adults.

The aim of this thesis is to study the conditions three public libraries have to be a resource for university students. The libraries are all situated at a distance from universities that allow the students to commute between the university and their homes. These students often make the same demands on the Public Library as they do on the university library. In order to conduct this study the frame factor theory has been used. This theory was developed by pedagogic scholars during the 1960s and focuses on how the framework surrounding the school affects the learning results.

This case study examines the new media presentation system in Alby Public Library. The aim is to explore if the contemporary Zeitgeist, wich according to the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, could be described as liquid modernity, has affected how the system was formed. The purpose is to find out how that would affect users and staff of public libaries of the contemporary. Interviews were conducted with the library staff, and plans and documents concerning the media presentation system was examined.The empirical part of this thesis starts with a study of the process that resulted in the new presentation system while the second part examines the system as such. I discovered that both the media presentation system, and the process which preceded it, contained aspects that could be traced to liquid modernity.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the library needs of distance students. This user study has a student perspective and concentrates on the main question of which way library needs might be expressed by distance students. Associated topics addressed by this study include; the problem of learning centres lacking their own library support, how distance students look upon library support as a concept and whether distance students prefer public libraries or university libraries, and why they make this choice. These questions may give the answer to how distance students deal with information literacy. Theories chosen by the study are in the fields of pedagogical and library science, the social cultural theory by Roger Säljö and in Tom Wilson's theories on user studies and information needs.