The presidency of the European Union (EU) is one of the most important institutional actors for the improvement of democracy and equality between the member states. To hold a presidency is a big task and for many countries a tough challenge. What makes a presidency successful? The purpose of the thesis is to examine this question using Ole Elgströms? ?four properties for defining a successful presidency? as the theoretical background. This thesis will employ a comparative framework of four countries, using size and age (age understood as ?time being an EU Member State?) as the defining factors.

During the late twentieth century, political and societal changes gave rise to an increased interest in performance evaluation in public organizations. This development also affected libraries in the public sector. The main concern for this master thesis is performance measurement in libraries. In this study two different types of libraries are investigated, one public and the other academic. My aim is to find out if and how performance measurement appears in the libraries annual activity reports.

The aim of this thesis is to, through an empirical study ofthe social tags in the City of Stockholm libraries? OPACwith critical discourse analysis, examine the social tags?linguistic design, usability, and communicative potential? all in relation to the context. It is a linguistic study andit is important to take into account that the tags are extremelyshort texts ? single-word-texts. My starting-pointis that the tags are a form of utility texts.What I find is that a clear majority of the tags are nounsand function as index terms, but that there are differencescompared to authorized index terms.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the notions and use of non fiction literature of children 9-11 years old. Moreover, this study tries to dissect the underlying concepts that exert influence over the target groups notions and use of non fiction literature. The method and empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of eight children within the target group. We use a theory of reading exchange to highlight the different areas of usability of non fiction for children. To emphasize how children use non fiction as representative for actual facts, or as non fiction with fictional content, we use a four-field correlation model.

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

Turning solar collectors, heliostats, is certainly not a new idea but has been explored for at least two decades. Projects on this subject have resulted in more or less realistic constructions, in a commercial point of view. Far too often the technical goals have had higher priority than the economical, which has resulted in a few constructions having the ability to compete with conventional, fix solar collectors. The economical issues have been given high priority in this project, without decreasing the demands on reliability. The system has been given the following mechanical and electronical properties: One-axis movement, fix heat carrying fluid system, microcomputer controlled movement and automatic protection from overheating.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the correlation between the price of electric power and investments within the Swedish basic industry. Using regression analysis, the authors test for correlation between the electricity prices and the basic industry, defined as the pulp and paper industry, the mining industry, the steel and metal industry and the basic chemical industry. Moreover, five variables found in the literature on investment decisions are being used as a means of comparison. The results suggest that the electricity price affects the investment decisions within the basic chemical industry as well as the steel and metal industry. On a more abstract level, this thesis contributes to the understanding of one of the properties of the Swedish GDP..

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

Studies have shown that library employees often choose not to use readers? advisory tools but to instead rely entirely on their own experience, often doing the library user a disservice. However, very few have looked at why this is so. This thesis looks at to what extent thirty individual employees in thirty Swedish public libraries use readers advisory tools when helping a patron find a good book, with the major focus on what motivates them to use these tools and why some choose not to use them. It was found that readers? advisory tools where not used with any consistency and that many things influence the library employees? use of these tools.

The aim of this master?s project is to explore ways to perform piano music conceived dramatically. I do this through performance of Beethoven?s Appassionata Op. 57 and of Scriabin?s Piano sonata no.

In order to get a better understanding of the interaction between employees and their technical work tools one needs to know what factors influence the interaction. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a correlation between the personality traits Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), tested with Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and experience of the new Intranet among employees at The Swedish National Transport Administration (SNTA), and also to gather information of employees? opinions about the new Intranet. A survey, containing questions about the Intranet and a personality test (EPI), was posted on SNTA?s Intranet for eight workdays (N = 88, females = 53, males = 35).

I got interested in this subject when I came in contact with Västtrafiks new paymentsystem myself during my visits in Gothenburg. I suspected problems with the informationmaterial regarding it and others seemed to share my opinion that the payment system wasdiffcult to understand. When I contacted Västtrafik and asked them about the paymentsystem they confirmed that some understanding diffculties had occurred. With thatconfirmation I decided to make it my project to look in to the matter.Some methods were used to identify the problems. The methods could again confirm thatthere were some problems with the payment system and that the information material wasa vital reason.

It becomes increasingly more difficult to stand out among the personal sites on the internet today and to become the one who actually gets remembered in the crowd. To be remembered, you need to have a useful website but also a creative appearance added to it.In this practical thesis I have focused on how a website should look like according to users and then added a creative look to the user-friendly website. The purpose of the study is to find out how to connect a useful website with a creative appearance. In order to do that, I first had to find out what users actually want. I used a survey in which I have asked questions about how a website should look like.

Mandometer® är ett medicinskt hjälpmedel som används för att normalisera ätbeteende hos personer med övervikt och ätstörningar. Mandometer® har utvecklats av Mando Group AB och används i behandling på Mandometer- och Mandoleankliniker i Sverige, USA och Australien. Det har nyligen skett en utveckling av Mandometer® från generation fyra till generation fem. Den nya versionen består av en tunnare våg och en mobilapplikation, istället för en våg och en bärbar dator. Det finns ingen tidigare studie kring den nya versionens användarvänlighet.