This master thesis aims to examine how public libraries in Sweden are practically and ideologically equipped to deal with e-books, outside of the dominant distributor Elib. The study also aims to find out what?s required of the book market and the public libraries to make further progress in the question of e-books. In Sweden e-books are still representing only a small amount of all the library loans and an even smaller amount of the commercial book market.The methodological and theoretical ground for the thesis is Grounded Theory, and the survey is based on interviews with publishers, librarians and distributors.The conclusions of this thesis are that the public libraries lack resources to invest in e-books, and that they also lack in knowledge about the media and its readers. It also exposes that both internal and external collaboration efforts need to be further developed.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to investigate the value and impact that reading groups organized by Swedish Public Libraries, have on its participants, role of the librarian and the Library as whole, according to librarian?s conceptions. In literature and earlier research reading groups are described to represent an important reader pro-motion tool for Public Libraries. At the same time the typical reading group member is often described as a per-son with a familiarity of reading. Another purpose is therefore to investigate the contribution of reading groups in promoting reading, according to librarian?s conceptions.

When a municipality is about to realize an IT investment, e.g. an economy system, theywill need to do procurement according to the laws of procurements. To perform suchprocurement takes time and energy from the everyday work at the municipalities, andtherefore they want to make a quick and efficient procurement. Unfortunately it showsthat municipalities do not always make an assessment that is sufficient enough for theirneeds, which can result in an inefficient system in a longer perspective. Municipalitiesthink more often about the hard values such as costs of the investments, and not alwaysas much when it comes to the soft values, like the user-friendliness.

Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, more than fifteen revolutionary yearshave passed. Estonia and Latvia have undergone a change from communist statesto members of the European Union. As in so many other post-communist statescorruption has been a problem. However, Estonia has since the independence hada lower degree of corruption than the neighbour country Latvia. The main purposeof this thesis is to explain why so.

This master thesis is an attempt to study the joint-use solutions between the public library and the public preschool in the local district Kristineberg in the community of Borås. The two main questions are; what kind of joint-use library is the activity at Kristineberg? What kind of advantages and disadvantages do the actors experience from the joint-use activity at Kristineberg? The analysis is based upon the interviews with eight informants with different connections to the joint-use library and public preschool. I also use documental analysis and literature studies. Relevant theories, such as Andersson´s and Skot-Hansen´s analysis of the role of the public library and Bundys, Imhoff´s and Dornseif´s theories about joint-use libraries are presented and later used in the analysis.

The analysis of regional development and the formation of regional policy have experienced an increasing importance in Europe and in Sweden during the last decades. There is a widespread assumption that the increasing significance of regions is due to the diminishing role of the nationstate in the era of globalization. This essay suggests that there is a hegemonic discourse, heavily relying on the assumptions of New Regionalism, when addressing regional building. Sometimes described as an ideology, New Regionalism, which is derived from research of successful regions, is based on the assumption that regional competitiveness and autonomy creates economic growth. The Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities (Ansvarskommittén) suggests that Sweden requires new regional structure, due to the increasing expenditures facing the welfare state.

Hur samverkar de nationella folkhälsomålen med fysisk planering, och på vilket sätt kan folkhälsomålen beaktas för att förbättra förutsättningarna för ökad fysisk aktivitet hos barn? Denna studie är en fallstudie i Hjo kommun. Studien tar utgångspunkt i kommunens folkhälsoproblematik som visar att det finns en hög förekomst av övervikt hos barn. Intentionen är att undersöka vilka organisatoriska processer som kan underbygga det kommunala arbetet med folkhälsomålen, liksom att ta reda på vilka faktorer i den fysiska miljön som skapar förutsättningar för barns fysiska aktivitet. Avsikten med studien har varit att skapa ett underlag för Hjo kommuns översiktliga planering.

Hair care is a hygienic treatment and is supervised by the Local Environment and Public Health Committee in the municipality. According to the Swedish Environmental Code, hairdressers as all practitioners are required to take measurements to protect the environment and public health. In hygienic treatments hazards may arise from inadequate hygiene practice which spread infection. Hazards may also arise from the use of hair care products such as permanent wave solutions, bleaches and hair dyes. Some hair dye components are known to cause contact allergy, mostly in hair dressers who are exposed professionally but also in some cases in consumers.

In the digital era, new services have entered the public libraries, like seeking information on the Internet, in databases, newspapers online etc. But many citizens do not know that these services exist. The libraries have a democratic responsibility to inform about them. In the county of Östergötland a project started in 2001 where libraries in five small municipalities built websites in which they present all their electronic services available. One of the aims was with the help of different kinds of marketing to reach special groups of people, like adult students, small companies and politicians.

AbstractMaster Thesis in business administration, School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University, financial control, spring 2010Authors:Stefan Hellman and Ewa Warnquist Supervisor:Magnus Willesson Title: Reward systems - a study of public companies? variable compensation system Background:Our interest of the variable compensation system in public companies was brought by the recent extensive discussions of bonuses in the time of a financial crisis. This has led to that the word bonus has been given a negative connotation and we wanted to find out how the system of variable compensation is structured in the companies at Stockholm Stock Exchange. Problem:How is the variable compensation system structured in public companies? Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to study how the variable compensation in public companies is structured.

Abstract______________________________________________________________________Title:A study about creating understanding for different kinds of empowermentLevel:Bachelors thesis in Business Administration, 15 creditsAuthor:Fredrik LegovicSupervisor:Tomas KällquistDate:2014 - JuneAim:The main purpose of this study is to increase the understanding for different kinds of empowerment and how it affects the staff in the public sector.Method:The choice of method was based on the research aim. The method used to meet the objective was qualitative. The qualitative study was conducted with a hermeneutic basis, where individuals were asked to describe their experience of empowerment and how they feel affected of it. This thesis has a deductive approach, where existing theories dealing empowerment formed the basis for the design of interview substrate, which is then paired with the empirical evidence, based on this the conclusions was drawn.Result & Conclusion:What separates the different kinds of empowerment and how it affect the staff depends most of all on how the management chooses to communicate and share information with their staff.Suggestions for future research:A study regarding managers that works with different kinds of empowerment, and how that affects them, could be regarded as an interesting future research.Contribution of thesis:It shows that different kinds of empowerment affect the staff in different ways, which I made clear to the readers.Keywords:empowerment, thinking skills, relations and organizational - structure and theory.

The aim of this master's thesis is to examine whether librarians working in public libraries see fiction as a source of knowledge, and what role this plays in the educational mission of the public library. This investigation, which consists of a literary study and an empirical section, shows that the concept of phronesis denotes practical wisdom and moral thinking, and that it can be applied to that form of knowledge to which reading can contribute. An important issue in this context is the reader's motivation to learn. The interviews show that librarians see literature as a source from which knowledge can be drawn. When they mediate literature, they believe that they are conveying something of value and they set great store in mediating literature which could have a not inconsiderable import to the borrowers.

The aim of this Master?s Thesis is to examine the importance of literacy and reading in a country like Jamaica. What role do public libraries and bookmobiles play in promoting literacy, and how does this work correspond with the UNESCO public library manifesto?To answer this, interviews were conducted with nine Jamaican librarians, and study visits were made to libraries and bookmobiles. In addition, development plans, policy and other relevant documents were analyzed.

This thesis examines the verification of the terms and conditions stated in contracts based on the Public Procurement Act. In March 2013 the Swedish state procurement commission released " Good Business - A Strategy for Sustainable Public Procurement " (SOU 2013:12), which found that the proportion of control and verification is relatively low. The thesis examine how verification is carried out and looks for an explanation to why verification is not more oftenly performed. To answer these questions two care studies, based on seven semi-structured interviews, is presented as the empirical material. Network theory has been used to analyse the empirical results, and aspects of commonly used theories such as contract management and "Markets and Hierarchies" by Williamson has also been taken into account.

The rapid change within digital medias has increased the possibilities to make information accessible through network. Therefore the European Union EU considers a harmonization within the Union, in order to strengthen the rights of the originator. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how the EUs directive 2001/29/EG regarding copyright is to be implemented into Swedish legislation and assess the common opinion in the public libraries on this matter. The basic methodology of this thesis is a democratic perspective, concerning the public libraries democratic role and the right of the citizens to have access to information. The thesis first part is a study of documents.