The aim of this Master thesis is to study the public libraries' function as a place for people to meet. Four major questions are taken up: + Do the public libraries have the function of a meeting place? + How important do the librarians and the visitors find the libraries possible function as a meeting place? Do they think that this function is important? + What differs the public libraries from other places in society when it comes to the function of a meeting place? + What differences are there between a larger and a smaller library when it comes to the function of a meeting place ? The basis of this study are interviews with employees at a province library in Jönköping and at a smaller library in Sjöbo in Borås municipality. Our study deals with the history of public libraries, its functions as a meeting place, its architecture, culture, and statistics concerning numbers of visitors and loans of books. The conclusions that are drawn are that the public libraries have qualifications to function as a meeting place even if that isn't always the case.

Dampness in the indoor environment have been a major issue of discussion the last decades since more and more people complain about their indoor environment. In the present situation there are difficulties to find what causes people?s discomfort in a damp environment even though there is a strong connection between dampness and human health.The aim of the thesis was to contribute to the work done today to achieve a better indoor environment in damp buildings. The purpose of the work was to evaluate whether the measures issued for dampness in the indoor environment contributes to the improvement of health and environment for those who are living or working in that space. Through a literature review, interview and survey the following three questions were answered to achieve the aim and purpose:How are people affected by the indoor environment in damp buildings?Which are the measures issued to prevent dampness in the indoor environment?Do these interventions contribute to a better indoor environment?How people are affected by the indoor environment in damp buildings and how these problems are prevented were the foundation for the continued work with the survey.

Abstract Background: The World Health Organization has expressed a great concern about the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Region Västra Götaland (VGR) has developed a web based program to support school nurses in their work to promote health among children with obesity. Previous research on childhood obesity emphasizes the importance of support from nurses and how their work is organized. Aim: The aim of the study is, firstly, to explore school nurses experiences with health promotion work among obese children. Secondly, to investigate whether school nurses use the salutogenic theory of health.

The major environmental problems that we have today are frequently mentioned in the media today. One example is the ongoing debate regarding global warming and its causes and consequences. There are also several other problems in our society such as segregation and social tensions. Most agree that we must do something to solve these problems and that we must try to achieve a sustainable development for the entire planet. But how should it actually be done and what trade-offs, compromises, sacrifices and changes must be made?The purpose of this paper is to examine how these issues are being dealt with in Swedish city planning.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the ideas about functions that public libraries have in the local society. We have used the method idea analysis on four municipal library plans, to find out which ideas about library functions that frequented each plan, and what similarities and differences there were between the ideas about functions in each plan. As a theoretic base, we have used a theory about three dynamic spheres in modern society: the state market and civil society, and examined how these three spheres influence and control the library functions. We have extracted six different ideas about library functions: educational, social, economical, entertaining, serving and democratic functions. The most dominating ideas in this study are ideas that the public library should be an educating and formative institution.

The public relations business has grown from almost nothing to a large international industry the last decades. Throughout the history the industry has struggled with a lot of critique and public relations has become a negative symbol for manipulation of information. Because of this negative view of the industry and the medial change taking place, the purpose of this study is to investigate how two different generations think about public relations. More accurate, the study will through a qualitative interview study explore how young people from a highschool in Luleå and elder people from Luleå township thinks about pubic relations, and most imortant why they have this particular view. By creating four focus groups, two with men and two with women, this also enables a comparative study between the gender. The focus groups were later analyzed and compared to two selected groups of theories on public relations, the theories were positive and critical theories compound in two categories.

Type 2 diabetes is a growing disease in the population which includes that older people are a risk group. With the disease grows even cost?s. A lifestyle change is a major part of the treatment for type 2 diabetes. There are several factors that suggest positive effects on prevention among the elderly where, among other things, economic and health benefits are presented.

The marketing campaign ?Låna dig rik? [Get rich by lending] involved 25 public libraries in three regions; Kronoberg, Kalmar and Blekinge. This paper examines 28 news-articles concerning this campaign, found in eight publications in the responding regions. The purpose of this is to determine to what extent the description of the campaign found therein responded to the intents of its founders and to what extent the public had a say in these articles. The result found indicates that the overall image of the campaign presented in the news-articles was well in correspondence with the intents of the campaign itself but that the public views where arguably absent..

In this Masters thesis the image of the public library in the local press and in the eyes of the public is examined. The questions posed to examine this are: - What activities of the public library are described in the local press? - What activities does the public associate with the public library? - What functions and roles of the public library can be found in the articles and interviews and how are they expressed? - What opinions of the public library and hereto related activities can be found in the articles and interviews? This study is based on an analysis of 127 articles, published in Borås Tidning during a period of six months, and of interviews with 35 people from Sjuhäradsbygden. To analyse the articles and the interviews Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen´s model of roles for the library has been used. The model includes four roles for the library: the library as a cultural centre, a knowledge centre, an information centre and a social centre.

This thesis is about the public library of Ulricehamn and the cultural activities at the library during the period from 1960 to 1998. We have focused on the study of the cultural activities. It begins with the foundation of the library of Ulricehamn and a historical background to it. It follows with the definitions of the public library and a historical background to the public library in Sweden. Then we present the goal of the public library in general and the goal of Ulricehamn's city library.

This bachelor?s thesis describes a qualitative case study of a public library as ?third place?, a place besides from home and workplace visited frequently for conversation. The subject is chosen because of the many roles of public libraries. The main query of the study is ?What view does the public library have of its role as third space and how does that relate to the way utilization of the public library as third place is seen??.

The goal with this study have been to investigate how teachers in physical education perceive health as a concept, and how they choose to work with in the classes they teach. Health as a concept can be somewhat diffuse and as the Swedish curriculum doesn?t define the concept the teacher are given a freedom in interpreting what health is and how it will be taught to the students. This makes it interesting to study if teachers perceive health differently and if that affect what they are teaching their students.I used interviews as a method to answer my questions and the results show that there wasn?t much difference between the teachers in how they perceive health and how, and what, they teach their students.

Increasing immigration to Sweden has transformed a culturally homogeneous society into a more heterogeneous one. As a consequence intercultural communication and interaction have been increasing. Child health care agencies have encountered these increases. The aim of this study was to examine what the health care professionals experienced and communicated in these intercultural environments. Eight interviews with child health care nurses were carried through at four child health care centers in the south of Sweden.

The increasing competition is making increasing demands of today's businesses to be changeable. Change projects have therefore become increasingly common in order to satisfy market expectations. These projects have often proved difficult to implement and fail rather than succeed. There are many people who reflect on why this is and theorists are increasingly reasoning about the importance of communication in the change process. This is something that has given rise to a new area of expertise called change management.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine public library and information technology IT discourses to see which relationships are established between them in four library journals. This is done in two steps, where first discourses are defined followed by an analysis of the relationships established between the public library and IT in each discourse. The questions from which the analysis emanates are as follows: What discourses exist around the public library and IT in the library journals? What conceptions of the tasks of the public library are constructed in the discourses? What conceptions of the tasks of IT are constructed in the discourses? What conceptions of the relationships between the public library and IT are constructed in the discourses? The theoretical and methodological starting-points are found in Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. 37 articles from four library journals Biblioteksbladet, Bibliotek i Samhälle, DIK-forum and Ikoner - are analysed through a model in five phases.