As public libraries in Sweden receive the bulk of their budget from local government funding, which has stayed static or, at best, seen small increases, libraries have been faced with inadequate resources with which to satisfy increasing expectations from users. As few libraries are over-funded in the first place, ways may have to be found to combat this situation. The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine alternative sources of funding for Swedish public libraries, and my main focus of interest is that of sponsorship. The method used is a literature study combined with an empirical study, in which interviews were conducted with five persons each with long experience of working with public libraries. The literary study deals with the concept of sponsorship, and the motivations for companies to sponsor are also examined.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the experiences and views some users have of the library environment and services of the University Library of Halmstad. The main question to be answered in this thesis is what importance the users attribute to the library environment and services while pursuing their most recent library errand. To answer this question a study of relevant literature on the subjects of library environment, library services and user-surveys in other academic libraries was carried out and a questionnaire was distributed to 22 respondents in the process of visiting the University of Halmstad Library. The literature background and the results of the conducted study were interpreted and discussed and led to the following conclusions: 3 respondents encounters with the library environment and its services were negative in part and thus their experiences and views were relevant to the completion of their library errands. The other respondents? encounters confirmed their overall positive earlier experiences and views of the library environment and its services, but had no real concrete significance for the completion of their library errands..

This master thesis is about access to literature translated into Swedish sign language for deaf at the public libraries. It is by now a well-known fact that there is produced very little literature in sign language for deaf. This is so even though the policies for the library nationally and internationally, and the public law for libraries in Sweden says there should be literature available for all groups of disadvantaged people. People who have problem reading ordinary ink books have the right to get the book adapted into a medium accessible for them. The goal of the Swedish law for disadvantaged says that in 2010 Sweden should be accessible for all irrespective of weather you are deaf or not.

Sweden is today often defined as a multicultural society. The implications on organizing and providing information in public libraries are many, since the systems presently used in the western hemisphere are not adapted to multi-cultural information. This thesis aims to outline ethical and practical problems that arise when organising and providing information concerning cultures other than western, and not least, when dealing with material in other scripts. With this theoretical framework the thesis examines the website of the International Library in Stockholm, a website built to serve users of different languages and scripts than Swedish. The research questions in this thesis are: 1, what specific problems can be distinguished within library work in a multicultural and multilingual environment? 2, what problems and needs were considered in the creation and design of the International Library?s website? And 3, can examples of problems and possible solutions of these be seen in the information and it?s organisation on the International Library?s website? The empiric material consists of the International Library?s website, and interviews with three informants involved in developing it.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the term balanced collection in relation to Swedish laws and the democratic assignment. The Unesco Public Library Manifesto states that libraries are to formulate a policy defining objectives, priorities and services in relation to local community needs. The Swedish Libraries Act, paragraph 7, states that municipalities and counties shall adopt plans for library services. To fulfil our aim we will answer the following questions. By which terms is the democratic assignment visible in Swedish public libraries collection development policies? Is the term balanced collection used in Swedish public libraries collection development policies? If not, are there categories describing balanced collection? Do the terms in Swedish collection development policies differ to the six categories found by Farooq M.

This thesis is a study of Futurum.kom´s campaign "Lyssna dig rik". Futurum.kom is a regional marketing project between Länsbibliotek Sydost, Regionbibliotek Kalmar and 25 public libraries in the county of Blekinge, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The aim of the Futurum.kom project is to strengthen the role of the Public Library in society. "Lyssna dig rik" was a cluster group campaign with the aim of making people know about the possibilities of loaning audiobooks in libraries. The target group was lorry drivers in the age of 30-65 with the possibilities to listen to audiobooks at work.

This master thesis is about art activity in the Public Library. The essay takes its starting point from Government cultural political directives and my purpose has been to study how these are followed up in the municipal level. My survey takes place at the main library of Flen in the county of Södermanland. What I am looking for is, what the art activity looks like, what is decided regarding it and what the strategies are. Furthermore I look into how library visitors understand and participate in the art activity.

In this thesis we have examined opinions of the social web in Scandinavian Library journals. Our interest lies in aspects about the social web, and above all about Library 2.0. The central question is how this new technology, a growing digitalization, and a social web that focuses on interactivity and participation affects opinions about libraries. We have investigated opinions about Library 2.0, with respect to three different dimensions: The role of the library in society, power/hierarchy and knowledge. The method used in this thesis is idea analysis using these dimensions as analytical instrument.

In this diploma work we present the results from a study of how adult immigrants utilise the services provided by the Public Library in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg. A survey encompassing 51 library visitors of foreign origin and an interview with two librarians at the library were performed.The results from the survey show that the majority of the informants were male students inages from 26 to 45 years and that they had been living in Sweden for a maximum of five years. 73% of the informants used the library to borrow literature in Swedish, 53% to read newspapers and periodicals in their native language, 43% to borrow literature in their native language and 43% to read newspapers and periodicals in Swedish.These results were compared with two other related studies with which partial correspondencewas found. In addition, related topics such as multicultural librarianship and the psychological aspects of immigration are discussed..

?The modern library in the network society?A study of cultural politicians and librarians opinions about libraries' use of social mediaSocial media is becoming more and more interacted in our daily lives and Carlsson (2013) argues that today's libraries have undergone major challenges in the digital information technology's entry in the library arena. The new technology has led to sum up in one question: how a library should relate to the digital information technology, the issue has applied in particular the social communications media, such as Facebook, Twitter and more. The purpose of this paper is to examine the culture of politicians and librarians 'perceptions of public libraries' use of social media linked to the libraries and their democracy promotion efforts. This is analyzed from Castells theories about the network society and the digital divide.In summary, the study concluded that the majority of the culture politicians and librarians believe that social media is a part of the future of the library.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to accomplish an understanding for how librarians purchase fiction literature in public libraries. To answer these questions, we have performed four qualitative interviews with librarians in three Swedish municipalities. We have also performed a smaller document study to give us an overview of the used guidelines at the selected libraries. The results of our survey have been analyzed on the basis of our revised version of Sanna Talja?s model The Interpretative Repertoires of the Music Library.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine seven public librarians? attitudes towards manga as a new kind of literature in public libraries. Manga is an art form, originally from Japan, but in recent years manga has become very popular in the Western societies. The main issue of this thesis is how the librarians? look at manga and what they think about manga.

This study examined gray areas within professional ethics of a Public Library organization and investigated the relationship between the library as an organization and the librarian as an employee when it comes to support and opportunities to make exceptions to rules and regulations. This relationship is then related to workplace issues.Data were gathered via interviews with six librarians who were placed into two focus groups. Library organization documents that contain rules and regulations (guidelines) were examined. The presumption was that conformity between librarians? experiences and actions and the organization?s guidelines will tell us something about workplace conditions.

The aim of the study is to examine ideas surrounding copyright law and related rights appearing in the referral statements that the participants of the library sphere gave to the department writ Ds 2003:35. These ideas reflect the positions the library sphere take regarding issues surrounding the copyright law and related rights. The department writ was preceded by a directive from the European Union; Directive 2001/29/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 22 may 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. The writ Ds 2003:35 was later followed by a proposition from the government which was co-herent with the preceding writ. The empirical material has been analyzed with a starting point in the polarizations, artist/audience, private/public and original/copy, presented in PhD Martin Fredriksson?s book Skapandets rätt.

The purpose of this study was to find out what are the information needs of the nurses and if the hospital library can satisfy these needs, and see how the hospital library reaches the nurses with their information provision. The main questions are: what kinds of service exist at the hospital library? What kinds of needs have the nurses concerning the hospital library? How are the needs satisfied by the hospital library? What marketing strategies are used by the hospital library to reach out to the nurses? Is it enough to achieve the goal? The method in this study was a case study with the emphasis on the qualitative interviews. The study was conducted at the hospital library at Södra Älvsborgs Sjukhus in Borås. The interviews concerned the nurses views on the hospital library, information needs and marketing.