The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the library habits of young people, age 15 to 24. Our empirical data are gathered in a survey distributed to 104 young men and women at three different public libraries. The questions are about how young people use the public library, what media and services they use and whether or not they are content with what the public library can offer them. In our analysis we have compared our results to previous research and used a model by Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen to determine how they use the library.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the Research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the Research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

The aim of this thesis is to study the effects of self-service on professional qualifications of library assistants in three public libraries in Sweden. The research questions are: - How do the library assistants experience that their professional qualifications have changed since self-service was introduced at the library? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between library managers and library assistants? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between the three different libraries? The method used is qualitative interviews with six library assistants and three head of libraries from three different public libraries. The theoretical framework for this study is constructed by theoretical ideas about professional qualifications and technology's impact on professionalism. The results indicate that the cognitive qualifications of library assistants have increased and social qualifications both increased and decreased.

In this two years master?s thesis I examine the library?s representation of research and its influence upon the relationship between the library practice and the research practice. I also intend to find out what controls the representation and if it is possible to see changes in the representation over time. My source material has been texts published in the Swedish library journal ? and social domain ? Biblioteksbladet during the last decennium (2001?2011).

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the functions of the public library for parents of infants and how they see the ideal library. The research questions are: How do parents of infants use the library and what are their experience of it? What opinions and wishes do parents of infants have regarding the library? How can library services be developed to better match the needs of the parents of infants? The theoretical approach is based on Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the public library?s functions and the model of classification by Ellen-Merete Duvold and Gunnar Sæbø. To answer my research questions I have carried out three focus-group interviews with parents of infants. The study revealed that the public library functions as a cultural centre, a social centre, a knowledge centre and, to a certain extent, an information centre for the parents.

The aim of this study is to investigate the needs and wishes of 10-13- year old children, so called tweens, when it comes to their local library. What kind of library do the children want? How does the mission and different functions for the children's library of today correspond to the needs of the children? Children of this certain age have been interviewed in focus groups where they have had freedom to ?create? their own library and discuss what they consider important in a library. Skot- Hansen, Rasmussen & Jochumsen's model (2011) with four important spaces for a library - performative space, learning space, inspiration space and meeting space has been part of analyzing the result. These four different areas for the library have been divided into threefunctions: a place for being, a place for learning and a place for creating.The result of the thesis shows, among others, that even though many of the aims of the libraries and the results of research correspond to the ideas and needs of the children, one of the most important functions for the children is the library as a place to relax, a quiet room, where they can dive into their books and other media, which has not been discussed in the research I have taken part of.

Since the role of the libraries as merely a place for loans has decreased, the importance of giving the visitors a total experience has increased.The aim of my thesis was to investigate whether a change in the sound environment at the library of Jokkmokk could generate more satisfied visitors, whether they are borrowers or use the library for other purposes. The change in the sound environment was to be effected by means of a background sound experiment in the magazine room at the library. Action research was used as a research strategy and observations and interviews as method to collect data.The experiment was conducted with two selected sounds of nature: birdsong and a rippling brook. The observations and interviews were executeted in three stages: 1. Without any background sound.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what functions the public library has for parents of small children. If and how they make use of the library and what their opinion is about it. The research questions are: Which functions does the public library have for parents of small children? How do parents of small children use the library and what opinion do they have about it? Which factors have an impact on the parents of small children and how do they influence their use of and opinion about the public library and the functions of the library? The theoretical approach is based on Henrik Jochumsen and Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen?s model of the social room and the lifestyles and Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the public library?s functions. To answer our research questions we have made seven qualitative interviews with parents of small children.

The aim of this two-year masters thesis is to look for the Swedish public library´s core business, using theories about competence. The approach is qualitative. It is done by studying the Unesco Public Library Manifesto, the Swedish library legislation, the education in library and information science, two important Swedish library related journals and by asking public librarians about their work and point of view regarding competence.The research shows mainly two sides of the core competence of public librarians: information technology competence and literature knowledge. The conclusion is that the two meet in the idea of mass education, which could therefore be called the Swedish public library´s core business..

This master thesis in library- and information science is about the intermediary function of the library room from an environment-psychological point of view. Young people are a group in society who often reduce their visits to the library when growing up. There are lots of reasons for this maybe more attractive activities occur outside the library doors, making the young choose not to use the library. But if the library interior is attractive in itself, and has a welcoming atmosphere, there might be a change and the young people may well choose to pay the library a visit. What is important to young people how do they want their library room to look? Our purpose is to see how the physical environment affects young people in libraries.

The main object of this master thesis is to examine whether domain-analysis could be used toorganize the collections in a library serving interdisciplinary studies, and in that case - howthat could be done. The thesis is based on a case study of a library for Asian studies, which alsoserves as a library specialized in that subject in the Nordic countries. The author has used, i.e.interviews and observations examining who the users of the library are and how these seekinformation. A theory part deals with some earlier studies of information users within arts andsocial sciences, and these are compared to the users of the examined library.The thesis states that one has to look at the different disciplines in which research is done (andcould be done) at the institute to which the library belongs, and that subject terms could beadded to the various documents from the view of those domains..

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate if the library can be a real partner for researchers in managing and dealing with their research information. In this study, six researchers have been interviewed about their problems with information management. This study uses the method Critical Incident Technique for the interviews with the researchers. This method focuses mainly on problems and what happens around those problems.

For a school library to function as a support for the students? development of their academic abilities, it must provide material satisfying their needs as well as the needs of the teachers. The school library should assist the students in their research endeavours, as well as inspire reading for pleasure. In order to do this it is imperative that the school library actively develops the existing collection and continually strives to meet the needs of its users. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to describe and reflect upon how a particular school library works with collection development.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to find out whether the library can be a way to support integration. To fulfil this purpose we have, by qualitative interviews, obtained information about eight immigrant womens views on and experiences of the Swedish public library. Through the literature and earlier research we have presented a background of immigrants and integration in Sweden along with factors that may influence the integration process. We have tried to give an insight into what is said about the immigrant woman in research and media, which we think affects her life and we also have given a short introduction to immigrant womens life in Sweden today. Of great interest for our essay have also been the public librarys objectives and social role in society.

In this paper we have chosen to work with both the background to the Library Act § 7a and followed the process of creating the library plan of Helsingborg City Library. We have tried to follow the process through the public text documents that are available. We start by giving a background to the library act and its additional § 7a. Then we give a recap of the emergence of the modern public libraries in Sweden during the last century until today. When the working group at the City Library in Helsingborg was working with the library plan, they had to take in count the strategic goals set up by Region Skåne, since Helsingborg is place in that area.