The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate how students at an upper secondary school for adults use school and public library when searching for information for school assignments. The focus in this investigation is on the feelings and experiences of the process of the information seeking and use. The focus is also on the students experiences of school and public libraries and the help they receive from them in learning. The method used is focus groups interviews. Two groups were interviewed.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the accessibility in public libraries for persons with dyslexia and visually impaired persons. In order to do this, library services, information and attitudes have been studied. Data have been collected through interviews and studies of documents, in particular guidelines for library service to disabled persons. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is Professor Michael Bucklands different aspects of access to information. He discusses six types of barriers that must be overcome if access is to be achieved.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine to what extent series books for children and youth are included in the acquisitions of public libraries. It also examines which needs series books fulfil among a group of 13-15 year old children. The main question of this thesis was: To what extent do libraries provide series books for children and youth? An inquiry investigation showed that a majority of the libraries in Sweden provide these books. The main reason to provide the books was that the demand is large.

The aim of this masters thesis is to, from a queertheoretical point of view, examine the possibilities to classify the subject homosexuality in three different classification systems. The three systems that have been analysed is the Swedish classification system SAB, the Universal Decimal Classification UDC and Dewey Decimal Classification DDC. The analysed editions are updates from the beginning of the 1970´s until today. The emphasis has been on how well the systems correspond to the changing society. We found several differences between the three systems, but also some resemblances.

This Master thesis discusses the development of a virtual human soft tissue object for use in exercise applications of various medical procedures.The soft tissue object to be developed shall look like, feel like and behave as living human tissue. It shall give the user a realistic feeling of weight, softness and roughness, and shall behave in a correct way for exercise purposes. The soft tissue model is to be used in a three dimensional stereo graphic environment with haptic feedback. A prototype for practicing the procedure of inserting a catheter is built. The prototype is used to evaluate the potential of the virtual environment for medical exercise applications, and to assess the realism and usability of the soft tissue object.

The aim of this masters thesis is to study the reliability of the URL as the link between a bibliographic record and a web resource. The Swedish catalogue services LIBRIS and NetSök have been evaluated on three different occasions, to study how these services have succeeded in giving access to web resources by using URLs. Because URLs are changeable, we have tried to find out common characteristics of the URLs in broken links. To accomplish this study we have used a quantitative approach and evaluated five percent of the web resources in the catalogues using a random selection. We have also used documentation relevant for our study, among other things to illustrate previous studies of the nature of web resources and alternative solutions to URLs as access points to web resources.

This masters thesis concerns the Public Library Service in Eastern Africa, Tanzania. Our subject was developed through a feasibility study that gave us comprehension that developing countries have individual problems concerning books and libraries. We understood that the main problems were the libraries financial situation and their dependence on aid. We also understood that the libraries do not have the resources to satisfy the society as a whole. The major questions raised in this study are: - How do the regional librarians describe their work situation? -Which role do the Regional Librarians have in society? Data was collected through interviews and observation, and the study is a qualitative case study.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine the discourses of concepts related to diversity and ethnicity in Swedish cultural policy. It focuses on how the society is presented in different contexts and how people with a different ethnic origin than the majority, are represented in the cultural policy of the Swedish State. The study is restricted to concern immigrants. Six governmental cultural policy documents, reaching over a time period of eight years 1995-2003 are examined as follows: Which key terms are used in the presentations? Which contexts and discourses can be distinguished? Have the discourses changed over the time period examined, and if so, how? The theoretical starting point in the thesis is the discourse perspective of Laclau and Mouffe.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate what attributes were used in story-time activities, why attributes were used in story-time activities and what functions they have. The study is based on qualitative methods in the form of a literature studies, observations and interviews. The interviews were undertaken with two storytellers from the same public library. The story-time activities were adapted for children from three to six years of age. The study suggested that there was a connection between story-time activities and a social and cultural perspective.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to compare classification codes and feature headings of three different universal classification schemes SAB, UDC and DDC, when classifying archaeological literature. The aim is to determine whether a subject analysis of a title generates similar feature headings in the three systems, and to find positive and negative things about each system from an archaeological point of view. The comparison and the analysis of the 22 chosen archaeological monographs showed that the subject analysis of the titles didnt always generate similar feature headings. This could depend on several things, for example different interpretations of the subject analysis of a document, less knowledge about the system and/or the subject, or the fact that its not the same classifier that creates the codes. The study also showed that the different classification systems did treat the subject archaeology a bit differently, and that its difficult to say that one of them is better for classifying archaeological literature.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis was to examine the information needs of the international students at the University of Borås. A further aim was to examine the types of information sources the international students was using to satisfy their information needs and the environmental factors keeping them from achieving this. This was done through focus group interviews with international students from four different countries ranging from the ages 20 ? 35.

This Masters thesis is analysing four Swedish novels written by first time authors published between 1993-2002. The purpose is to make the fictitious main characters illustrate what conditions and obstacles there can be for the individual of today to create a self-identity. Anthony Giddens ideas about the self in the late modern society are used as a theoretical framework. In the core of Giddens theory is the concept of reflexitivity which means that the self must be constructed in a continuous fashion because the overall conditions in society are subject to constant change. The questions posed in this study are dependable on Giddens in general and the concept of reflexivity in particular.

The aim of this masters thesis was to study how the members of a small non-profit organisation perceived the web forum, compared to the other information channels of the organisation. The organisation was defined as a virtual community. A literature review was conducted. The theory construction was based on the sensemaking theory. Interview questions were constructed based on the literature review and the sensemaking theory.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what intentions handbooks, laws and regulations have had about children and childrens literature, as we think that they can serve as guiding principles for childrens libraries in Sweden. The questions are: what signals have the childrens libraries got from the documents concerning the view of children and childrens literature during the 20th century? What has the social opinion about children been during the 20th century? How have children been seen during the 20th century? The method we used is a qualitative source analysis of mention above documents seen from a hermeneutical point of view. This analysis is woven together with the social opinion on children during the 20th century. Our results show that the aim of childrens literature before 1945 was a pedagogic and moral one.

The aim of this Masters thesis is, with an exploratory stand, to examine the thoughts regarding gender perspective at childrens library service that are expressed from childrens librarians as well as the staff in administrative management. The purpose of the study is to generate ideas for further research and discussion regarding a gender perspective on the childrens library service. A total of eight interviews have been carried out. Three persons at the administrative level and five childrens librarians were interviewed. We also have examined if a gender perspective is expressed in the control documents, from international level to a local level, which the libraries could use when developing and planning their work.