The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine libraries which combine the functions of school- and public library and to evaluate the staff?s experience and attitude towards a library profile with the emphasis on children and youth. The purpose of the study is also to examine how the libraries work with several tasks and functions within different target groups with different needs.With new institutionalism and Scandinavian institutional theory the thesis examine the library as an organization and what influences the construction. With a model that describes how the library constitutes four different rooms in the society I investigate the different functions.The methodology is qualitative with interviews of five persons of the staff, four librarians and one library assistant. The study examines how the staff that works at two libraries under similar conditions experiences their tasks.

The aim of this thesis is to study how librarians in Swedish libraries perceive the task of mediating fiction. What are the librarians private relationships to fiction and how do they perceive the position of fiction in contemporary society? What views have they developed of the borrowers approach to fiction and how do they perceive the borrowers increasing influence in the library? How do librarians prioritise and which principles form the basis for their purchase of fiction? How do they categorise fiction in the library and how much do economic and political factors influence the decision making process for the purchase of fiction? Finally, how do they define their roles as mediators of fiction and which strategies do they adopt to communicate which literature the library has to offer? The material used in this study was acquired using a qualitative interview technique in which six librarians with experience of literature mediation partook..

My aim is to examine the special form of interaction between users of the shut-in service and the responsible librarians. My purpose is to examine how mediating of literature can be pictured in correlation with shut-in services. How do librarians describe their experiences of the shut-in service? What roles of mediating can be perceived? How can interaction interpreted in the context of the shut-in service?The material was acquired by doing qualitative interviews of five librarians who works with shut-in service. This study is based on the theory of Åse Kristine Tveit.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to develop an understanding of why non-users do not use public libraries by studying their information and culture habits and their relationship to public libraries. One of the motivating factors behind this choice is the lack of earlier research on the subject, particularly qualitative research. The theoretical framework is stratified into three associated levels with Brenda Dervin?s sense-making theory on an individual level, Marianne Andersson?s and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the roles of public libraries on an institutional level and Pierre Bourdieu?s theoretical apparatus on a social level.

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and perceptions of children`s librarians regarding floating collections in public libraries in Gothenburg. In focus for the study are the experiences and perceptions that exist among children`s librarians when it comes to children as library users, the librarian`s working tasks and the professional role as a librarian. The empirical material has been collected through semistructured interviews with six children`s librarians. The material has been analyzed twice. The first analysis has been conducted through qualitative content analysis.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the debate in Swedish library press concerning privatization of public libraries. The aim of the thesis stems from a desire to know whether Swedish librarians, as has been alleged in contemporary right wing debate, are politically biased and adherents of socialism. The debate is analysed using the method of idea and ideology analysis, using the tool of ideal types of the ideologies socialism and neo- liberalism. As material I have chosen articles from the magazines Biblioteksbladet and DIK Forum, from the years 1989 to 2010. The reason for choosing the topic of privatization is that it is a controversial question and a topic one could expect to generate a heated debate.Four positions can be discerned in the debate.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine how librarians work in a literary educational role with literary circles for adults and youth, in public libraries and at school. The study also examines whether participation in book discussion groups has any effect on participants and librarians regarding changes in reading habits and in personal development. Another aspect investigated was how participants experienced the atmosphere in the group. We have conducted qualitative interviews with five librarians who have lead different literary circles and with two participants from each literary circle. In all 13 interviews were conducted.

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.

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.

Although school librarians have an important role to play in high schools helping teachers and students during their education, Swedish school librarians are often considered to end up left out by teachers and head principals due to school librarians vague and unclear professional role in the school. The aim of this thesis is to attempt to study school librarians own apprehensions of their particular professional role in a high school context, and how their professional role is believed to be apprehended by teachers and head principals. The results are based on interviews made with eight school librarians working in different high school libraries in Gothenburg during April 2002. By using phenomenographic method various existing apprehensions of the specific phenomena that the professional role of the school librarian constitutes of are made clear. The aim of the method is not to study what the profession constitutes of, but rather how it is apprehended by the school librarians themselves.

There is an increasing demand for information literacy, which is mirrored in curriculum throughout the whole educational system. This, in turn, has brought forward a growing need for librarians who can teach. But do librarians possess pedagogical competence, and if they do, how is this ability used in everyday library practice? The aim of this study is to investigate librarians' conceptions of the pedagogical role, as it is expressed in their didactic interaction with the users. The research questions focus on librarians' experiences of teaching information seeking and use and their activities in this respect.

?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 aim of this study is to look at the identity of the public library, and to examine one way to make the identity of a specific library strong. PUNKTmedis is a newly opened library in Stockholm, aimed solely at people between 13-19. The question to be answered was: How can it affect the image of the public librarys identity when you aim the activity towards a specific user group? To answer this question, the qualitative method of case-study was used. Five interviews were carried out, with representatives from three different groups: users, politicians and librarians.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis is to examine university librarians? perceptions of information literacy, of students? information literacy and of education in information literacy. The focus is on how they perceive the students? information literacy development during their university studies. Also of interest in this study is how librarians think that their teaching in information literacy should be included in the students? other courses. Three librarians at a Swedish university library were interviewed using qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to accomplish an understanding for childrens librarians purchases of juvenile books. Two main questions are to be answered: - Which considerations do childrens librarians do when buying juvenile books and which goals and motives are behind their purchases? - What do childrens librarians think that their knowledge and competence consists of and how is that knowledge useful when buying juvenile books? To answer the questions qualitative interviews with five childrens librarians have been carried out. The material has been analyzed through a theoretical construction consisting of theories about collection development, book selection and quality judgments. The conception tacit knowledge silent knowledge from Michael Polanyi has also been used for interpretation.