The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the design of the reference service and its development that Internet has caused in college/university libraries when it comes to the service provided to the user. I want to examine the quality of this development from the view of the librarians, and also investigate their attitude and how they deal with this development.The following questions were asked:? How has Internet changed the reference service at college/university libraries?? How do the librarians look upon the possible change of quality in the reference service when the Internet is involved?? What attitude do the librarians hold toward this development where Internet is used in the reference service and how do they deal with it?The method used was qualitative interviews. A total of six librarians from Blekinge tekniska högskola, Halmstad högskola, Lunds universitet and Växjö universitet have been interviewed.The theories and models used were ?media richness?, a quality framework including ?quality aspects of a service?, and social psychology and its ?reasons for a positive/negative attitude on an organisations change?.The result shows that Internet has brought more sources of information and additional ways to contact the library.

The work as a personal assistant is sometimes associated with certain problems. Studies have shown that personal assistants often experience indistinct rules and roles concerning what should or should not be included in their duties. This study was undertaken to evaluate problems associated with the profession as a personal assistant, how widespread they are and how they are dealt with. Specifically, the study evaluates if the personal assistants have to do duties that they consider they are not assigned to do. Different roles (formal as informal) are also discussed which may be of current interest in this study, but also how we see people on basis of ethics and moral.

Umeå University currently uses two Course Management System, Moodle and Sakai (Cambro). Both Moodle and Sakai are based on open source code and are today the two more popular choices among Swedish Universities. They both have different strengths and weaknesses both from a technical perspective and a user perspective. This can create problems for a course responsible/teacher when it comes to planning the course structure at a distance course but also when planning the course structure on a campus course that uses a Course Management System. With this as my starting point my formulations of questions become:How do the Course Management Systems that Umeå University uses differs, both from a technical perspective and user perspective?What possibilities is there in the Course Management Systems to use a different Course Structure?Is there a noticeable difference on the view of Course Management System of teachers and students at different departments?The purpose with my essay is to create a basis that course responsible/teacher can use to plan the course structure.

Safety, its a word not commonly associated with elderly people living alone. There is however a device that is supposed to bring safety, and enable elderly people to continue living in their present household - an emergency dialer. However these devices does not serve their own purpose in terms of design. Thepurpose of this study is to create an emergency dailer that everybody would want to put on their wrist or bedside table. The market for these devices have looked the same for the last twentyfive years, despite of society´s advancements in both design and technology.

Skeuomorphism är ett relativt nytt begrepp inom interaktionsdesign.Skeuomorphism är en designstil vars mål är att efterlikna realistiska objekt för attframkalla och skapa vissa effekter och upplevelser, som till exempel attunderförstått kommunicera en förståelse till användaren. Litteraturstudien visadepå att ingen har undersökt hur användare upplever inslagen och effekter somutlovas är spekulationer. Denna uppsats undersöker hur användare upplever inslagav skeuomorphism i digitala gränssnitt. Studien utfördes med hjälp av metodernathink-aloud och intervjuer för att besvara frågan, ?Hur upplever användare inslag avskeuomorphism i digitala grafiska gränssnitt??.

The purpose of the project was to design an electric bicycle to offer thetarget group youth an attractive alternative to mopeds. The basis for theproject was user studies in which young people were interviewed andobserved in their daily environment.The project resulted in a product, designed with the focus of integratingthe battery to the shape, to create a wholeness that is simple andintuitive.!The product is easy to use and operate, with an automatic transmissionengine.! A smart modular system allows the user to choose design withmudguards, rear rack, or without. The battery design is based on "cradleto-cradle" to maximize the battery life and minimize environmentalimpacts.It was very fun and rewarding to have the opportunity to present theresults for the youth who showed great interest in the product.The project was conducted in collaboration with Designit and Cycleurope..

Abstract: After their introduction, technical systems designed for Situational Awareness have changed the possibilities on the battlefield. Today, Swedish tanks use a system known as the TCCS. This system offers many advantages to a tank platoon, but does it also bring disadvantages? This essay examines pros and cons with the TCCS. To find these the author uses a Swedish Armed Forces analyze model in a comparative study.

The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.

User participation in the planning process of renewing the yards of existing residential areas was introduced in Sweden in the 1970s. It arose as a solution to many of the problems which became common in the residential areas built within the Swedish million program. The aim with the million program was to build one million homes within ten years. The same year as the million program was completed, in 1975, government subsidies to improve the residential yards were introduced. One of the conditions to get the subsidies was that the residents had to be involved in the planning process.

The object of this bachelor thesis is to examine how publiclibraries are working to reach out to boys in their early teens,and from a relationship marketing perspective see howlibraries are using marketing as a tool in creating long-termrelationships with this user group. The following questionsare asked: How do public libraries market themselves toboys in their early teens? How are children?s and youthlibrarians working to create long-term relationships with thisuser group? How do children?s and youth librarians viewmarketing as a way to create long-term relationships with theuser group? The theoretical framework of the study is EvertGummesson?s model of relationship marketing. Interviewswith five children?s and youth librarians make up theempirical data.

The work as a personal assistant is sometimes associated with certain problems. Studies have shown that personal assistants often experience indistinct rules and roles concerning what should or should not be included in their duties. This study was undertaken to evaluate problems associated with the profession as a personal assistant, how widespread they are and how they are dealt with. Specifically, the study evaluates if the personal assistants have to do duties that they consider they are not assigned to do. Different roles (formal as informal) are also discussed which may be of current interest in this study, but also how we see people on basis of ethics and moral.

The content of the following report is the summarized result of three students thesis at Blekinge Institute of Technology in co-operation with Water Jet Sweden AB. This report will give the reader a description of principles how to measure the abrasive mass flow in a waterjet cutting system. The work began with a visit to Water Jet Sweden AB to get a closer look at the problem. When the analysis of the problem was done the criteria were defined in the form of demands and desires. The main task of the criteria was to guide the search for the solution. The work proceeded with an extensive search for abrasive flow meters along with obtaining information about flow measurement in general. When the search for abrasive flow meters resulted in nothing all the efforts were concentrated on finding a principle of measurement that could cope with the criteria.

A passive house in Norra Djurgårdsstaden drawn by Tengbom Arkitekter is going to be built. A shaft for airing is needed for a few apartments in the house.The airing shaft is designed for a few two room apartments in the house, which are not able to achieve satisfactory airing, as their outer walls are facing a single direction. The other apartments on the same floor are corner apartments. These apartments do not have the same difficulty with airing since they have their outer walls in different directions, with different pressures at the facades. The airflow in the airing shaft is supposed to be driven only by natural forces, by the sun. The purpose of natural driven forces is to achieve low energy consumption for the house.In this thesis, a design of the shaft for airing has been developed.Initially an open shaft for all apartments was analyzed.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and compare the cataloguing rules for sound recordings: the rules used by a specialised archive and common libraries respectively. We will put the rules in relation to purposes (the objectives of a bibliographic system) and principles (directives that guide the construction of a bibliographic language). The first question to be answered is in which way the set of rules used by a specialised archive differ from the one used by common libraries. The second question examines if and how the differences can be derived from purposes and principles. The sets of rules studied are KRS (chapter 6) and the Swedish version of the IASA Cataloguing Rules (1999), worked out by the National Archive of Sound and Moving Images (SLBA).

Rapid Granulator is one of the world's largest producers of granulators, which is a kind of grinderwho grinds discarded plastics to granules which later can be reused when pressure molding plastics.The company wanted help in developing a new, or alternatively extending their previous,measurement equipment. The old equipment was hard to use, required changes in the code fordifferent measurement scenarios and had a limited array of measuring quantities. Rapid had an ideaof a similar concept only with a greater number of input ports, better range of applicable sensors andan advanced yet easy to use interface. The system is supposed to be placed at Rapid's test departmentwhere it will be used as a tool for finding faults and provide data which can be used for furtherdevelopment of the granulators.The project's members accepted the task and immediately began searching for suitable componentsfor the system. After the search was completed a list of costs, limitations, sensors, I/O's anddevelopment environment was presented to Rapid's staff.