Mediation of fiction has always been one of the main tasks of the public library. The focus on information technology is often seen as a threat and competitor to this task. But technology can also offer new ways to mediate fiction, and the aim of this thesis is to examine how library websites and blogs can be used for this purpose. The research questions are:? What forms of fiction mediating material exist on library websites and blogs?? How is the fiction mediating material presented?? Are there any differences between the fiction mediating working methods on websites and blogs compared with those in physical libraries?The thesis is based on a qualitative content analysis of eight Swedish public library websites and three blogs, and on a theoretical frame work including literature and research on mediation of fiction, library websites and blogs, web design and usability.

The aim of this master's thesis is to describe the visibility of the university libraries in the strategic documents from the actual universities to which they belong. And also, the image of themselves they send out, are examined. By examining different kinds of descriptions we want to get a clearer picture of how and in what amount the libraries are mentioned in highest level strategies. By doing this we expect to find out the libraries' strategic role in higher education and research. The research questions are: What role and function are assigned to the university libraries in strategies created by the schools' highest administrative levels? How do the libraries present themselves in their own strategies? The approach is cross sectional and the time frame is year 2008.

This paper is about employees' opinion towards libraries. The target group consists of employees at industrial research institutes in Sweden. Libraries offer several more services today than they have done before. I think many people do not recognise all of them and I also think the knowledge and the opinion about libraries have to do with use of them. Since I am curious about if this is true or not the purpose of this essay is to find out, through an attitude research, the employees', at industrial research institutes, opinion about library service.

The aim of this Master thesis is to make a survey of the public library staff-relations at work and discuss relationship marketing as it applies to Public libraries. Relationship marketing involves the establishment, maintenance and development of users and other library-related relationships, including the relations among the library staff itself. Good relations among the library staff is a necessary condition for good relations with others. The focus of relationship marketing is at the user?s needs, wants and demands instead of the library collections and services.

The aim of this study is to understand how the library environment affects the experiences and feelings of public library users. In order to concretise this, the study sets out from the public library in Bollebygd. We wanted to find out how the library users experience the library environment. Does the library environment affect the meeting between library users? How does the environment affect their moving patterns inside the library? Which environmental factors influence the users' experiences? Our questions were: how do users experience the library environment - as a mediating space for information and culture? - as a social room and meeting place? The material used to attain the purpose of the study consists of qualitative observations and interviews, and literature studies.

The aim of this master thesis is to find out if young people and librarians think that reference groups can support Public libraries to meet the needs of young people, and if the reference groups, which the librarians describe, differentiates from the young peoples requirements. I have made a qualitative study with a questionnaire to six librarians who have experience from reference groups and ten interviews with teenagers. The result showed that young people have many interests and needs which can be met from the library. The teenagers were positive to the library and many of them showed interest in having more influence on the library. Many would like to join a reference group, but on the condition that they would be offered real influence.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study resource allocation among district libraries within Stockholm?s City Library (SSB) on three different occasions ? 1996, 2001 and 2005 ? and to examine whether there exist any inconsistency between the state of the allocation of resources and what might be considered reasonable. During the course of the study, it became apparent that some measurements are more relevant than others when determining whether the allocation of resources is reasonably fair. The most relevant ratio is the share of net cost per capita in relation to population and the population?s composition of children, youngsters and persons with foreign background as a result of relevant political governing documents giving priority to these three groups.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ancient library organisation in the Mediterranean area. The focus of the study is if they used catalogues, marked their material and their methods for shelving. During the ancient period the people used to write on clay tablets, parchment- or papyrusrolls and codex, which was significant for the organisation. The method, which I use, for the examination is based on criticism of the sources, how the modern scholars has interpreted ancient remains and texts. The study shows that the first evidence for library organisation is from Mesopotamia 2350 BC.

The aim of this essay is to examine three separate Swedish Public libraries and their respective websites on the grounds of the usability sciences. I firstly had to summarize the main properties of the usability-field in order to gain an extended knowledge of its purposes and possible usage for today?s library systems. I was then able to apply the extended knowledge in the examination of the three library websites and the purpose of determining whether or not they were designed according to the standards set by the usability-sciences.Usability is a rather new science that deals with the dissection and examination of computer-based systems, in order to find the key components that make systems user-friendlier. With user needs being the main focus of its research, usability tries to meet all the different needs of the modern user and construct systems that are less system-centered and more user-centered.

The public library´s overall purpose and legitimacy is analways relevant subject for discussion in Library andInformation Science and in public debate on libraries.Libraries are a part of a bigger societal context and are thusinevitably influenced by societal changes. In this thesis wehave studied different roles and functions of the publiclibrary, as seen from documents published by one specificpublic library in Malmö - Garaget. As basis we have usedan analysis model of the library in the knowledge andexperience society made by Jochumsen, HvenegaaardRasmussen och Skot-Hansen (2010). Our purpose has beento examine which ideas and notions on the functions of thepublic library that can be found in Garaget?s documents andin the model ? and to discuss them from a discoursive pointof view.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to explore how Stockholms new library´s identity is constructed, and further to relate the case study to a general discussion of the identity of Public libraries in Sweden. This is done through analysis of the visions and plans that the planned library is based on. We feel that it is a relevant study since questions concerning the public library's identity are for library and information science as well as the institution. Questions posed in the study are: How is the roles and identity of the planned library described in the texts that form the basis of the project? What characterises the relationship between the present and the planned library? What discourses concerning the public library's identity can we see in the material?The theoretical framework of the thesis is a discourse oriented analysis based on the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough.

The aim with this master thesis is to study which ambitions and strategic aims Gothenburg?s district libraries have regarding their music sections. I have utilized my theory from Sanna Talja, a Finnish researcher in Library and Information Science. She identifies three perspectives in maintaining a music library. She calls them, general education, alternative and demand.

The major aim of the thesis is to describe the networks, relations and marketing of some university libraries and their customers in the year 2000. I illustrate how these issues interact and whether they have changed due to the recent development of technology and if so, how. The thesis is based on interviews with two directors of libraries and two librarians at two different libraries. A small survey with 16 questionnaires has also been performed in order to get a more general view on librarians' opinions in these questions. The thesis mainly shows that the networks in which the respondents take part primarily exist in the library sphere and towards the universities.

The purpose of this study is to examine young people?s opinions about libraries using social media for communicative and marketing purposes. There are three research questions: What do young people think about libraries using social media for communicative and marketing purposes? Do they want to interact with libraries in social media and, if so, in what way? Are their opinions and their will to interact influenced by what kind of relationship they have with libraries, their reading habits, and whether or not they use libraries? digital services? Prior research is divided into three themes: library development, marketing, and young people. The theoretical framework is made up of a combination of relationship marketing, using Evert Gummesson?s three catchwords relationships, networks, and interaction, and the engagement pyramid, as depicted by Brit Stakston.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine if and how bibliotherapy can be part of ordinary work in Swedish libraries. Questions: what is bibliotherapy and who can work with it? What are the conditions required? What does it mean to people taking part and to libraries? In this study bibliotherapy is delimited to fiction and activities including discussions, excluded are self-help books and the individuals private reading. The study is based on four qualitative interviews with librarian and bibliotherapists in Kirklees, England, partaking in nine bibliotherapeutic sessions and a literary survey, together forming a case-study. Conclusions: There is not a single answer to the question what bibliotherapy is, but if one puts stress on the biblio- part of the word, seeing reading as a normal activity it can be part of library work, whereas the therapy- part should be dealt with by professionals outside libraries.