The aim of this thesis is to examine the underlying causes for the opening of Karlstad Public Library. In doing so a theory based on the actor/structure model within social theory is used. The structures and actors are intertwined and therefore need to be analysed together. To do so the theory poses a series of questions that needs to be answered. The method used is document analysis.

This essay takes its point of departure in the need for modern day public libraries to legitimize their place in today?s society. Societal changes call for constant reinvention of libraries and as part of this reinvention, new light is being shed on the Public Library?s role as a meeting place. By investigating contemporary debate articles published in Bibliotek i samhälle and Biblioteksbladet, two major Swedish library magazines, this essay aims to categorize and compare different conceptions of the library?s function as a meeting place.

This thesis addresses the library environment and how it affects the accessibility for the library users. A study is made of the Public Library in Eslöv. We wanted to find out how the library staff, the senior librarian and the architect discuss the library environment, considering:? The accessibility for the library users.? The possibility for the users to orientate themselves in the library.We also wanted to see how we as users experience the library environment and compare these experiences with the results from the interviews. The material used consists of qualitative interviews, observations of users and our own experience studies.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of the Public Library in the district of Österåker during a period of 1958-1983. The main goals have been to identify the crucial events in the history of the library within their historical context and to analyse the factors that have been important for the development: financing, location, staffing, stock of books, book-lending level and different activities for children, youngsters and adults. The consideration has been taken to reasons and consequences of these events. The hermeneutic interpretation model of interaction between parts and wholes, between reasons and results is the basic method in this research which leans mainly upon local archives in Österåker. The Public Library in Österåker was established in 1952 as a fusion of previously existing small libraries: the parish library in Östra Ryd, the Labour Movement?s library and the temperance movement?s library.

The web sites of Swedish public libraries display a high level of heterogeneity when it comes to design and graphical user interface. The thesis is based on the opinion that the visuals of a Public Library web site have implications for the user as well as for the library. The design of the graphical user interface influences the attention of the user and his/her ability to absorb information. Furthermore, there is a connection between the visuals and the users opinion about the credibility of the content of the web site, as well as of the organisation itself. The research question is: Which factors may have an impact on the design of the graphical user interfaces of a Public Library web site? The purpose is to create an understanding for these factors and emphasize them.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to investigate which rolesthe mobile library has to its users in a small community in Sweden.To reach this purpose I have focused on the following two researchquestions:? Which are the different functions, social, cultural, educational orinformation-based, that the mobile library offers its users andwhich of these are used in reality?? What purposes are there for the mobile library and how it is usedby it?s visitors?To answer these questions I have interviewed four users of amobile library and I have held e-mail interviews with librarians incharge of a mobile library as well as the head of the department ofculture and peoples health in the community. As a base for myanalyse I have also used a pilot study which I performed earlier inthe spring of 2011.My theoretical framework is based on the model of the publiclibrary?s different roles made by Marianne Andersson and DorteSkot-Hansen.The result of this study show?s that a mobile library isn?t verydifferent from a permanently located Public Library. The fourdifferent functions all exist, wholly or partly, in the mobile library..

This Bachelor?s thesis is about crime-fiction in Swedish public libraries and aims at investigating the attitude of librarians employed within the Public Library sector with regards to crime-fiction writing. Therefore, our aim is to examine how public sector librarians assess the quality of crime fiction writing compared to other forms of fiction. And research has shown that librarians haven't always looked upon crime-fiction favorably. The established view of crime-fiction was widely seen by the majority of public sector librarians as a lower form of literature and regarded it as a form of mass culture.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to illustrate the public librarian. People in general, including library users and leading personalities in the field of culture in the communities do not know the tasks of the public librarian. We presume that the vague picture of duties of the public librarian might cause problems. In this dissertation we mean to examine only public librarians, hereby we exclude for example, university- and company librarians. The sentences of this thesis are: How are the public librarians viewed, in meaning of, tasks, role/-s, comptetence/-s, status and image? And can we call it a "profession" in the classical sense? We answer these questions by using relevant literature, interviews and conference paper.

In this masters paper the change that Lidköping Public Library went through between 1952 and 1959 is described and analysed. The aim is to describe and analyse the reactions that arose at the time that the first professional librarian, Jörgen Elgström, acted to create a modern Public Library in the town. The issues that are handled are: How did the local politicians and the general public react to the process of change that was started by Jörgen Elgström? What were the consequences for the staff, the premises, lending, child and youth activities? The paper is concentrated around the period 1952-1959 because this is the time when Jörgen Elgström was working in Lidköping. Jörgen Elgström has a central role in the paper.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to find out if public libraries provide new age materials or not. My research is done using the point of view of the library users. Do they think libraries hold a sufficient amount of new age literature and do the users find this literature of good quality? To find an answer to this question, interviews have been made with a number of library users interested in new age related issues. Interviews have also been made with librarians, to get their point of view on this rather controversial subject.

In a web environment the library and the librarian continue to function in their role as information provider even when the physical library is closed. Research question is to describe how and in what extent the public libraries websites are integrated in their daily activity and what the causes are for that. The empirical material consists of a survey of number of public libraries websites and qualitative interviews with responsible librarians. I have delimited the study by only investigating the websites of Gothenburg public libraries. In my survey of the websites I have studied four spheres; Services, Contact, Structure and General viewpoints.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the user discourses that can be identified in the Public Library field. Questions posed in this study are: what discourses can be found, what characterises them, how are users categorised and what does this categorisation imply. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic. 62 articles from three library journals - Biblioteksbladet, Bibliotek i Samhälle and Ikoner are analysed through a model in four phases.

The purpose of this essay is to study the coming into being of two newly built public libraries in Sweden, Malmö Public Library and Linköping Public Library. In both cases, the architect was appointed through a competition. We have examined the degree of importance that one has put on the buildings functionality and aesthetics, respectively. Furthermore we have studied how the cooperation between library staff and the architects has worked, and finally we have studied to which degree the parties involved think that the interests of the users has been taken into concern. The first main chapter of the report is an overview of the literature found on the subject where we present theories on library architecture used in Sweden as well as abroad.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study various views of sponsorship in relation to public libraries as found within three cultural policy documents. The main objective is to discover which ideas are considered relevant in the partnership between the Swedish retail chain, Åhléns, and the children?s Public Library, ?Room for Children? (Rum för Barn). In 2005, Åhléns provided SEK3.14 million in sponsorship to ?Room for Children? at Kulturhuset in Stockholm.

BarnOPAC is a Swedish library interface for children. It was launched in public libraries in Sweden in 2001 and has now become a part of library software equipment in several public libraries. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the interface BarnOPAC on the basis of the childrens perspective. The questions raised consider: how children experience and handle this interface, how library staff experience it and what viewpoints librarians have on childrens use of it. For this purpose we implemented a user study including eight children using the interface in a school library.