Close to the city center of Reykjavik lies the combined national- and university library of Iceland. Usually, these two types of institutions are separated. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the library in fact selects the new digital material to offer the users in Iceland, and if the combined mission creates any problems or conflicts.The investigation examines the planning and the content of the digital library, what user groups are addressed and how the organisation is held together despite the different missions. If cultural context in Iceland makes a difference for what is selected and offered to the users is also discussed.Six informants in strategic library positions dealing with the digital national- or university library, were interviewed. The answers have been analysed in light of the library&information literature on building and maintaining digital library collections and organizational and marketing theory.The main result of the study is that the informants do not see a conflict between the missions of the organisation, although traces of a struggle were found in some areas.

This EEF-project is a part of a larger project at SLU, Division of Reproduction, Dept of Clinical Science, with the intention of developing and evaluating new methods for the assessment of stallion semen quality. Over the last 10 years there has been an increase in the use of artificial insemination with cooled semen in Swedish horse breeding. At the same time, foaling rates have decreased. This has lead to a need for new and better methods of assessing the quality of stallion semen. This EEF-project was based on an objective method to calculate motility, with QualispermTM, in fresh and cooled stallion semen, and after selection. Today sperm motility evaluation is mainly done subjectively by visual assessment with a light microscope, and the correlation between these motility results and fertility have varied.

Swedish public administration has for the last few decades undergone reforms aimed at making it more efficient. A substantial part of these reforms have concerned creating clearer roles for politicians versus officials in the public sector, i.e. giving politicians a responsibility for setting goals and steering activities and public officials the role of implementing them.This study aims to examine one reform following this path that is under implementation in a Swedish public authority; Försäkringskassan, the Social Insurance Agency. The purpose of the reform is to increase the organization?s effectiveness and the rule of law.

Gender awareness is considered of absolute importance to Swedish school?s and preschool?s main mission ? equal opportunities for all children. Gender portrayal in childrens literature is now one subject of vast study, since literature often carry underlying messages of the perception of male and female. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis was to analyse, mainly through Maria Nikolajeva?s scheme of gender ideal types, how the Swedish writer Per Gustavsson portrayed girls in four of his so called Prince- and princess books.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a contribution, by connecting the transfer of meaning within the context of TV series. The meaning is transferred from the brand to the character in a TV series and then further to the viewer. To look at different role functions that are used in dramaturgy and narrative techniques, we will be able to see how the brand will have a specific role and thereby make the transfer of meaning more successful and effective. This role will have an important impact on product placement according to the meaning that will be transferred from the brand to the viewer, through the character. Methodology: By looking at the transfer of meaning process that is created from the brand, an unstructured observation is applied where we observed the placement and usage of different within a specific TV series. Qualitative strategy is conducted by using a case study.

Background: Due to outsourcing, the material flows in the telecom equipment industry have undergone major changes, which in turn has imposed new challenges for packaging supplier Nefab who delivers to the industry. In order to achieve market intelligence, Nefab wants to map the material flows, and investigate possibilities of further reusable logistical packaging systems.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the typical features of the logistical material flows in a technically based, rapidly growing industry, and analyze the driving forces and obstacles, which influence the selection of logistical packaging system. Procedure: After developing a theoretical framework consisting of general logistical theories and theories related to logistical packaging, we have interviewed companies in the logistics channel of Ericsson Radio Systems.Results: We have found the main characteristics of material flows in our investigated industry to be Variations in Demand, Focus on Time-to-Customer, and Globalization of Logistics Channels. Regarding driving forces and obstacles in the selection of logistical packaging systems, we have identified Transportation Characteristics, Customer Demands, Quality, Handling & Administration, and Current Packaging System as important factors..

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

The aim of this essay is to examine different discourses concerning adolescents and library youth services that can be identified in the material. 73 articles from the Swedish library journal, Biblioteksbladet, were analysed trough a model. The different articles were all published between 1916 and 2005. The analysis revealed a result that consists of four discourses about adolescents and youth services at different libraries between 1916 and 2005: the library as fostering discourse, a new era discourse, the visiting activities discourse and the young adult discourse. The library as fostering discourse is based on the idea that the library itself doesnt need to change the service to adolescents, instead the adolescents are supposed to change into good library users.

The aim of this study is to examine the fiction promoting role of public librarians through their fiction displays. The study covers three problems: What reasons do public librarians give for their selection of displayed fiction? How do public librarians view fiction displays in relation to other promotion strategies? How do public librarians think that promotion through fiction displays will evolve in the future?The results of the study have been analyzed using Jofrid Karner Smidt?s theory of how public librarians view their promotion of fiction. The concepts used are promotion due to public demand, actively recommending and informative promotion, and through dialogue. To account for the problems investigated in the study, eight librarians have been questioned through semi-structured interviews.

This essay describes a single case self-study of a music composer in order to track the compositional process in real time. In the study the subject and the researcher are the same person. The study builds on previous empirical studies that have used methodological approaches such as analysis of computer-based digital data collection, verbal protocol and video observations. It deals with issues of the compositional process related to for example time consumption, number of artistic decisions, the different roles and skills of a music composer, and methods of research in the musical composition process. During three shifts the researcher worked as a music composer dealing with the issue of converting an audio sketch of a composition into a representative finished audio product.

Public libraries have an important roll of making information accessible to all people. This democratic right supports the cultural development in our society. When public libraries build websites offering information and services it can sometimes cause obstacles for impaired users. It is therefore our purpose to evaluate a selection of websites and library plans to examine how the libraries work with accessibility for these users. This thesis is based on theories of cognitive and human computer interaction, and information architecture.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

This study examines the cultural place and status of video and computer games in the Swedish public library. Using works on popular culture and the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this study employs quantitative methods, as well as textual analysis, to analyze the results of an online questionnaire with 19 questions focusing on selection criteria, shelf placement, perceived competence, as well as reasoning for having or not having these games in the library. 286 out of the 440 libraries contacted is participating in the study, and the libraries consist exclusively of public libraries in Sweden that are found in the database of the Royal Library.The results of this study show that a larger number of libraries than previously indicated have started to provide electronic games to their patrons. At the same time, patterns in the data and comments suggests that these games in many cases still do not enjoy the same level of cultural recognition as other media. Indicative of this is the way most libraries seem to focus on the medium being exclusively for their young patrons, with seem-ingly very little in the way of investment for adults.

Background: Breastfeeding frequency decrease in Sweden and infants born preterm is a particularly vulnerable group to not be breastfed according to current recommendations. Mothers of preterm infants have an extra need of support from the health care system. Mothers' self-efficacy in breastfeeding affects the outcome of breastfeeding. Health professionals' attitudes to breastfeeding have an impact on the breast feeding support they provide to the mothers.Aim: To investigate whether an intervention could strengthen self-efficacy in breastfeeding among mothers of premature babies. A further aim was to investigate whether the intervention influenced health professionals' attitudes to breastfeeding.Method/Design: An experimental study with quantitative approach in the form of questionnaire survey was conducted.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the attitudes of librarians towards young people's approaches to libraries and reading. The study also includes statements of the young as regards their own library usages and reading habits, as well as the attitudes of youth leaders. The latter are compared to the statements of librarians, and serve as referential frameworks. 28 interviews were performed, of which 22 with young people. The interviews and the following discussion were based on five themes; the library as a room, usages of the library, reading habits, the library as an institution, and library changes and developments.