This master thesis is about amateur writing. To understand the writers needs and wishes about writing and access to information I have researched writing in a writing group. To answer my questions I have studied research literature and interviewed six of the members of the writing group. I also participated in their meetings for two years. The result of this study shows that writing had a therapeutic function for all of them in a period of their lives.

This thesis aims to analyse ontology, primarily as the word is used in the context of the Semantic Web. One of the main questions is how ontologies relate to classification and thesauri, two concepts well known within Library and Information Science. The vision of the Semantic Web, a more intelligent addition to the current World Wide Web, has raised the question of how to deal with information scattered over a multitude of locations, stored in different formats, written in different languages et cetera. This issue is in many ways similar to the classical problems encountered in library science: how to classify and categorise large amounts of information. The use of ontologies is one of the main steps leading to the Semantic Web, as well as a tool which can be used in other areas of information organisation and management.

The purpose for this Master?s thesis is to describe the similarities and the differences of the work at the public libraries? children?s sections, between Sweden and Italy. In order to do that we examine the cultural political presumptions that Swedish and Italian libraries have, such as policies concerning public libraries and children, on a national as well as an international level. We also look at existing attitudes regarding the work at the public libraries? children?s sections, among authors of research literature in our subject.

Weblogs, or blogs, are frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries, generally in reverse chronological sequence. This thesis focuses on the rapid-growing phenomenon of weblogs and the fact that individuals with a background in library and information science are frequent users of weblogs. Since this is an explorative inductive study the ultimate purpose can be described as to find out what ?blogging? as activity is about. The research questions posed are: Why do individuals with a background in library and information science use weblogs? How does their professional identity affect their blogging? And finally; how do they use the weblog to create networks with other bloggers? The empirical material consists of audiotaped interviews with five informants who are all employed in knowledge work, either as librarians or information specialists.

The purpose of this thesis is to draw a picture of pedagogical work at the senior level with a critical perspective of information and media. As a method for gathering material for the analysis, a case study was made with qualitative interviews together with documents that describe the case. Relevant literature for the subject has been used as an introduction and as a theoretical basis. The literature concerns subjects such as a childrens relation to media, the schools intructions, the role of the school library and some theories regarding learning. The conclusion is that the respondents focus on conversations and reflection regarding the sources of information and its use, and that the childrens adaption of the material is an important factor in teaching.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there are gender differences in computer use among the young. Our aim was to find out in what respects boys and girls differ, if at all. The main method of investigation is a literature review. We have also made a complementary empirical study in a public library. The literature studied principally covers computer use at home and in school.

In Sweden most public libraries give users access to databases. These databases are sometimes possible to reach outside the library by internet at any time and this provides a change for the library and the society. Librarians function as change agents when they give access to databases and when databases are introduced to users. However, reports show that the use of databases, especially those in English, is not high in reference work. This study aims at analysing attitudes of librarians to access and use of databases on and by public libraries.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to illustrate the public librarian. People in general, including library users and leading personalities in the field of culture in the communities do not know the tasks of the public librarian. We presume that the vague picture of duties of the public librarian might cause problems. In this dissertation we mean to examine only public librarians, hereby we exclude for example, university- and company librarians. The sentences of this thesis are: How are the public librarians viewed, in meaning of, tasks, role/-s, comptetence/-s, status and image? And can we call it a "profession" in the classical sense? We answer these questions by using relevant literature, interviews and conference paper.

This essay is about reading among patients in hospital. The aim of the essay is to find out what part reading and the library play for patients in hospital. An additional aim is to find out in what ways the collaboration between hospital librarians and hospital staff could be developed. The starting-point of the problem is one main question: What part does reading play for the patient during the stay at the hospital? On the basis of the answers to this question I have also looked for possibilities of enhanced co-operation between hospital libraries and hospital staff.The method for the essay is qualitative and fifteen persons in three different wards at University Hospital in Malm have been interviewed.

In 2010 there will be a political resolution to ensure that the Swedish society is accessible to all citizens including people with disabilities. For this purpose a national action plan for disability policy "From patient to citizen" (Govt. Bill 1999/2000:79) has been set out with the aim of ensuring that the disability perspective will permeate every sector of society and that the approach and response to people with disabilities will be improved. The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs is responsible for implementing the disability policy in the cultural sector.Since public libraries in Sweden are a part of the public cultural sector, they will also be affected by the political resolution regarding accessibility. The concept underpinning library services for disabled people must be that of equality of access.

This Masters thesis deals with query expansion in an online library catalogue. The aim of the study was to compare the retrieval effectiveness of four different query types when applied to the online library catalogue of the University College of Borås. The query types were: an initial query, the initial query with right hand truncation, the initial query expanded with synonyms and finally the initial query expanded with synonyms and right hand truncation. 24 topics were formulated, and four queries for each topic were constructed. The records retrieved by the searches were judged with regard to topicality, and were judged to be non-relevant, partially relevant or relevant.

Research is a time-consuming endeavor which requires appropriate tools to manage often vast amounts of information. Militarization 2.0 is a research project aiming to explore Militarization in social media. The aim of this project is to design a user interface for supporting researchers in projects involving large amounts of data in qualitative studies. The project will follow the design process of the first version of the Militarization 2.0 research database interface. The design process involves user studies, interviews and design and testing of paper and digital prototypes.

The question of the provision of electronic books in Swedish public libraries has lately evolved into a lively debate in Swedish media, where the public library?s identity and itsexpected role as a democratic institution is an underlying topic. The aim of this bachelorthesis is to examine the idea of the public library?s identity as expressed in newspaperand journal articles by writers connected to the library sector. The aim is achieved byexamining the language-use and identifying discourses in the debate.

This master?s thesis attends to a debate in the Swedish daily press concerning the public library which arose after the Swedish Moderate Party?s publication of their cultural political document Kulturen 2.0. This document contains a number of standpoints, of which three directly concern the public library: charges on book loans, libraries on contract and politically balanced purchase policy. In all, 28 articles are examined by means of an idea and ideological analysis. The purpose is to find out what is behind the conflicts surrounding attitudes about the public library's mission and activity in an era of needs for change.

I take interest in whether and how students in primary schools nowadays in Sweden participate in book clubs. My focus is on why teachers and school librarians choose to run book clubs and try to understand the structures that make book clubs possible. The method form my work is the qualitative research interview. I interviewed a group of eight people, five school librarians and three teachers from a medium-sized city in southern Sweden. My theoretical framework is a model contructed by researcher Patricia Montiel-Overall called Teacher- and Librarian Collaboration.