Little attention has been paid in the literature to libraryassistants in Swedish public libraries. In this bachelor thesis,the professional role, work duties, career prospects and statusof library assistants are examined at two public libraries.Because of a scarcity of published information on thedevelopment of this profession in Swedish public libraries,retired library assistants, as well as currently employedlibrary assistants, librarians and a library head wereinterviewed.Since the ?80s, work duties of library assistants havechanged, with a reduction in some of the more manualaspects of library work, the development of new duties and,overall, an increasing similarity in the duties performed bylibrary assistants and librarians.Additionally, the public perception of library assistants as acategory distinct from librarians was investigated bydistributing questionnaires to library patrons. Contrary toexpectations prompted by statements in the literature, asubstantial portion of visitors was found to be aware of thetwo separate categories.Library assistants at Swedish libraries have no careerprospects, unless they undertake studies in their own freetime and at their own cost, and obtain a librarian degree. Adifference between the situation of library assistants inSweden and corresponding professional categories in a fewother countries is that, at present and for several years, noformal education for library assistants has been available inSweden.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the ideas about functions that public libraries have in the local society. We have used the method idea analysis on four municipal library plans, to find out which ideas about library functions that frequented each plan, and what similarities and differences there were between the ideas about functions in each plan. As a theoretic base, we have used a theory about three dynamic spheres in modern society: the state market and civil society, and examined how these three spheres influence and control the library functions. We have extracted six different ideas about library functions: educational, social, economical, entertaining, serving and democratic functions. The most dominating ideas in this study are ideas that the public library should be an educating and formative institution.

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.

The increased popularity of e-books in the Swedish publiclibraries started a debate in newspapers and library journalsbecause of the increase in costs, which this popularity hadled to. The main subject of the debate was the businessmodel provided by the e-book vendor Elib, which accordingto some ruins the libraries financially. In this thesis, opinionarticles have been analyzed using a theoretical model ofcultural politics by the Danish Library and Informationscience researcher Dorthe Skot-Hansen. The results of thestudy showed that people from the library field, publishersand authors were the ones contributing to the debate. Theanalysis of the articles showed that the model of culturalpolitics which consists of four general motives: socialchange, education, economic growth and entertainment wasvisible in the articles.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine in what way the introducing of library plans in three municipalities have affected the work in library organizations. We base our study on a new institutionalist perspective, which focuses on changes in organizations from a social and interpretative perspective. By using this theoretical framework, it is possible to study how interpersonal relations affect the development in library organizations. Through qualitative interviews with ten librarians, we investigate how the establishing of library plans has influenced, and been influenced by, the library field and by the environment, i.e.

Ever since the development of the pc and their software, in the early 80´s,architects way of work have changed a lot. Nowadays most of the architectspresent all their works digitally and not with hand drawn material, as they didbefore the pc boom.Digital visualisation technique pushes the limits, when it is about presentingarchitecture projects virtual reality.This report studies how digital visualization technique is used among thearchitects today.Together with architects from ABAKO architect firm in Gothenburg, Sweden,interviews has been made to give answers about what they think about digitalvisualization technique. What are the opportunities, advantages- anddisadvantage with this digital technique?The answers from the architects, together with work that has been done withdigital visualization technique in a project called Project Sofiedal, shows thatthis technique has big opportunities when it comes to create nice looking VRpresentations. The result in this report also shows that this digital technique ismore time demanding compared to hand drawn presentations.The investigation shows that digital visualization technique is a goodcompliment when it is about showing the citizens how future projects willaffect the surrounding.

The postindustrial market increasingly demands service infused products to add more value to the customer in order to be competitive. Much research regarding digitalized services indicates that companies have to be innovative in order to compete on the market. However, companies within different industries face different challenges with digital service development. This study has been conducted because there are little known about the opportunities and the challenges different industries faces with a globalized market. Our research question is what the challenges are and what opportunities does strategic digital service development entails for companies.

The purpose with this study is to examine what kind of support there is for school libraries at the selected independent upper secondary schools and how these schools ensure that libraryservices is available to their students and their teachers. The purpose is also to examine what attitudes the administrators of the schools have to school libraries and teaching in information seeking. A qualitative method with interviews was used to fulfil the purpose. As a theoretical basis of the study Loertschers taxonomies of the school library media program and Limbergs three levels of pedagogic research were used and the interviews were analysed with these two theoretical frameworks as a background. The result of the study showed that neither one of the three examinated schools has a school library which means that they use the public library instead.

In this thesis the pragmatic pedagogy as formulatad by John Dewey is applied to theswedish national campaign Digidel and its work to spread the digital participation among thegeneral public. The purpose of the thesis is to visualize and problematize that differentunderstandings of a problem, lead to different solutions, as lifted in John Dewey´s pedagogy, thatconstitutes the thesis' theoretical framework. The term digital participation is used by the Digidelcampaign, where public libraries take active part to spread digital participation througheducational efforts. By qualitative interviews with four librarians this thesis examines howunderstandings of the term may vary and in turn lead to differenent educational goals, designsand executions. The result shows that basic computer- and Internetskills are seen as either equelto or prerequisites for digital participation and that the digital participant is seen as either apassive recipient or an active participant.

The aim of the thesis is to examine the Swedish publiclibrary-debate between 1965 and 1975, with a focus on theinfluence of the New Left movement. The empirical materialconsists of articles from two library journals, and is studiedwith the intent to achieve knowledge of the library ideologyexpressed in context of the socialist movements of the 1960sand 70s. The method used is ideology analysis. Threedifferent areas of debate have been included in the study:issues pertaining to library holdings, problems concerning theworkplace and social and outreach activities.Some of the salient and key ideas that often recurs in thematerial touch upon the dangers of mass market literature, thenecessity for an expanded workplace democracy, theimportance of social work and the need for a more politicallyactive library. The bureaucracy, centralism and authoritariantendencies in the library world are criticized, as well as thenotion that the library should remain a politically neutralinstitution.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine the growth of the library in Vaggeryd. We have analysed how four factors influenced the library development during the years between 1862 and 1953. The four factors we have studied are development of society, collective actors, librarys economy and individual actors. We have worked with the following question: · How have the four factors: development of society, collective actors, librarys economy and individual actors, influenced the growth? We have focused on the changes that the industrialization brought on the society development, and on the growing of the non-governmental organisations.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how public library users consider the knowledge of the librarians and to examine what the users expect from the librarians. To begin with, we contemplate our own view of the librarians, their knowledge and what help we expect at the library. Realising that we do not expect particularly much from librarians, although we have studied to become librarians for two years, we assume that the regular library user does not expect much either. This assumption resulted in our decision to investigate this particular question.

ICT and digital artifacts is an important resource in the society, especially in schools. That is why we have chosen to study if and how teachers uses ICT and other digital technology in their education in the history subject. We think that both subjects are important because history is a subject that has to do with the past, the present and the future.We made qualitative interviews with seven teachers from three different schools. We have analyzed if the teachers sees ICT as a burden or a resource in their education and also in which extend they have digital literacy. We have chosen to discuss different authors view on ICT in the education and digital literacy.

The aim of this study is to describe the market for Digital Signage in Sweden and give the reader an increased insight and understanding of the problems that suppliers and buyers of Digital Signage may encounter. The study is abductive and based on a number of qualitative interviews with representatives from potential buyers, an existing user, a supplier and a number of companies with insight into Digital Signage. Our findings show that the companies in this study have not yet reached the stage of being ready to invest in a system for Digital Signage, since the effects on for instance increased sales and potential savings on marketing communication have not yet been clearly proven. Furthermore the study shows that it is important that a supplier has a fundamental understanding of the business model of the buyer. In addition to this, service, support and IT-related issues are of great importance for the potential buyers.

The main purpose of this Master´s thesis, is to describe and discuss what constitutes the library collaboration between The Swedish Royal Library and the National Library of Guatemala, but also to analyse which effects the support has for public library work in Guatemala. The data consists of interviews and direct-observations during 2 months of fieldwork in Guatemala, Central America. The analysis is based on literature studies combined with the answers from the respondents and other results from the field work. We have found above all three factors to be of importance in the constitution of the collaboration between the National Library in Guatemala and the Swedish Royal Library: the Swedish library discourse, the Swedish aid discourse and the relationship between the people involved with the project. The library discourse in Sweden and in Guatemala emphasizes different aspects of the work.