The aim of this Masters thesis is to, from a users perspective, investigate which factors affect the library use for six persons with disabilities or visual handicaps. My method has been a case study and the methods applied are interviews and observation. As a theoretical framework I use Tom Wilsons theories and models about information behaviour and transform them to a model about library use. Answers are sought to the following questions: - What does the library use look like for six persons with disabilities or visually handicaps? - How do they experience the library in their own municipality? - Which factors affect the disabled persons library use and experience of the library? All interviewees showed a very positive attitude towards the library and the majority of them visited the library regularly or received audio books by mail.

The aim of the thesis is to study young peoples, defined as boys and girls between 14 and 16 years old, attitudes to library in two municipalities. Notwithstanding the fact that young people, and children, often is given priority in library work, the reality often seems to be another. Attitudes are founded primarily in childhood and therefore it is of great importance to examine how young people regard libraries. Besides studying former research about young people and libraries that has been performed on library and information science, we also have been using concepts and theories from social science. We give a brief outline of youth research and its development and look at official records and legislation to see if and in what context young people are mentioned.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to study students perception of the services that the library staff provides and the library staffs opinion of the students perceptions. With the concept service we mean the treatment, the attitudes and the qualities that exist between the library staff and their users. Our purpose is also to examine how the users experienced services quality. Our survey was conducted at an academic library with questionnaires to both students and library staff. We analysed the result of the survey by using three theories by Lundmark, Keen and Grönroos and Monthelie.

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.

This thesis examines the perception and use of the school library for students at an Upper Secondary School. The school has a high frequent of immigrant students, and the students interviewed all have an immigrant background. The intention was to find out how the students used the school library and what perception they have of the school library. The method used was semi-structured interviews with eight students, both males and females, who studies different educational programs. The instrument of theory was that from Elisabeth Tallaksen Rafste?s theoretical framework.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate and understand how technology students handle information especially when they are working with their Masters thesis. A further purpose is to examine how technology students use library resources of the Linköping University. The research method used is grounded theory, where description of the method is an integral part of the study. Twelve qualitative interviews were made with newly qualified graduates from the engineering programs of Linköping Institute of Technology. The respondents were divided into two groups, A and B, with six in each group.

Our state of emergency is good - is the public library prepared for the future?Our state of emergency is good! These are the words spoken by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson in 1939. He claimed that Sweden had nothing to fear from a future war, we were safe. Today we know it was not so. Is this the situation for Swedish public library of today? Is the public library ready to face the future, or is it only fancy words?We have to form the future, not let the future form us.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time ? in terms of participation and equality ? at a specific library.Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study.Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology.

The aim of this master thesis is to study what relationship mentally disabled adults have with the public library and what factors affect their meeting with the library. The work of the library is also studied so that the experiences of the mentally disabled can be put in relation to the work performed for the group. The method used was interviews with four mentally disabled adults and one librarian responsible for the social function and availability at the library. As a theoretical framework Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model over the profiles of the library and Michael Buckland?s barriers, which must be overcome to achieve full access to information, were used.

A qualitative study of high school student teachers' ideas about libraries and school libraries.Interviews have been conducted with future teachers about the library's role in their education,their views on library functions in high school and whether they as teachers will use theschool library. The results show that the students have had some instruction concerninghow to use the library as students, but very little as regards their future teaching. The professorsof teacher education focus on the fact that the library should be used in high schoolteaching, not how to use it. Despite this, the student teachers look very positively upon libraries.Libraries play an important part in their education and they are all sure that they asteachers will use the school library, which includes interacting with the librarian. To them, themost important school library function is to allow pupils to seek information..

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time ? in terms of participation and equality ? at a specific library.Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study.Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology.

The purpose of my essay is to study the current debate on public library as a meeting place in the Swedish daily press. I have examined how the meeting function is used and how it is perceived and what it might mean to the public library. Through a selection process, I chose 18 relevant newspaper articles from the year 2006 to 2012. By implementing a content analysis, three themes were distinguished; ?the meeting place as a place to reside on?, ?the meeting place as an inclusion? and ?the meeting place as a culture and activity house? I have used Andersson, Scot-Hansen and Rabers theoretical models of the library's roles for my analysis.

Today, "the digital library" is the common way of describing a managed collection of information, with associated services, stored in digital formats and accessible over a network. Digital libraries have mainly been developed at research libraries, but during the last few years public libraries have started to offer similar services.The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how the Swedish public libraries plan to develop their digital libraries according to their mission statements, and in what way they have implemented them at their web sites. 21 public libraries, the largest in each Swedish county, were investigated.The library mission statements are investigated to find out in what terms the digital libraries are described and to what extent. The library websites are examined with respect to what kind of digital services are offered, to what extent they supplement or replace the physical library, and if there are new digital services not found in the physical library.In most mission statements the digital library is referred to in sweeping terms like "IT activities" and "new media". However, a few of the libraries clearly regard the digital library as an important part of the future operations, speaking of it in well defined and extensive terms.The public library websites are relatively homogeneous when it comes to services supplementing physical library activities, like web access to the library catalogue and links to other library catalogues.

This is a thesis about an upper secondary  school library and its role as a pedagogkal resour­ce. My purpose has been to find out about the views and experiences of the staff at the school library and twelve teachers at the upper secondary school  conceming the school library as a pedagogical resource. Fourteen  qualitative interviews have been accomplished, twelve  with teachers and the rest with the staff of the school library. All the interviewees seem to think that their school library has an important function as a pedagogical resource and both the librarian and the teachers have given me some examples of occasions when the library has been used as a pedagogkal resource. This school library is mostly used as a complement to other pedagogical resources but for some longer projects with an investigative character it could sometimes be used as the main source according to the answers in these fourteen  interviews..

This paper aims to investigate how Helsingborg?s city library?s visi-tors feel about computer games being available for lending and in which way computer gamers see Helsingborg?s city library as a resource. This was examined first with a study of 100 of the library?s visitors and then with five interviews with computer gamers and an interview with the librarian responsible for purchasing games.The study showed that most visitors were neutral to having games at the library and of the ones that were not neutral many more were positive than negative. Of the five gamers who were inter-viewed, there were several who had borrowed games in the past.