Virtual communities are a phenomenon that is becoming more common as the information technology comes with in reach for the general public. This report will bring the theories and construction of a virtual community together. The purpose of this report is to describe the different theories that have emerged from the research within this field and to examine the work procedures that have been used during the development of a site for a MDA-community. The MDA-website is a homepage on the Internet that was developed to bring the students closer together. The report describes the work of the project group, why the website was not completed and at the end the theories are looked at on the basis of the construction of the website..

The purpose of this thesis is to achieve an increased understanding of factors and considerations of importance to larger companies? purchases of tax consultancy services. Based on a qualitative case study, the thesis more specifically analyzes purchasing companies? perception of quality in tax consultancy services, how the companies organize their purchases of such services and the relationship between purchasing companies and tax consultants. The study suggests that tax consultancy services constitute a heterogeneous group of services which are normally purchased by people in charge of either accounting or tax matters in the purchasing company.

Libraries all over the world struggle against the threat of decreased funding and a lack of governmental interest. In countries with an under-developed library sector the interest from the government is often minimal or non-existent. Since the 80´s Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has contributed to the library development in Central America through the Royal Library of Sweden. Nicaragua was the first country to be counterpart in the project. For a period of eight weeks I have completed a field study in Nicaragua and visited the National Library Rubén Darío and public libraries in the country.

The aim with this master thesis is to study which ambitions and strategic aims Gothenburg?s district libraries have regarding their music sections. I have utilized my theory from Sanna Talja, a Finnish researcher in Library and Information Science. She identifies three perspectives in maintaining a music library. She calls them, general education, alternative and demand.

The competitive nature of the automotive industry has always implied a necessity to improve product development concerning time-to-market, cost and product quality. As capacity of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools has evolved, so has the strive for simulation-driven design. Virtual durability testing using full vehicle models is one of many challenges posed in front of vehicle manufacturers when computer simulations are given a key role in product development.This thesis has been initiated as a preliminary step towards implementing dynamic virtual durability testing in the development of buses and coaches at Scania. The objective has been to assess the predictability of a full vehicle coach model and to what level of precision structural loads can be predicted. Previously performed proving ground testing of a Scania Touring coach has been the basis for the modelling and simulations in this thesis.A virtual model of the Scania Touring coach has been created in multi-body simulation software package MSC.Adams.

The major aim of the thesis is to describe the networks, relations and marketing of some university libraries and their customers in the year 2000. I illustrate how these issues interact and whether they have changed due to the recent development of technology and if so, how. The thesis is based on interviews with two directors of libraries and two librarians at two different libraries. A small survey with 16 questionnaires has also been performed in order to get a more general view on librarians' opinions in these questions. The thesis mainly shows that the networks in which the respondents take part primarily exist in the library sphere and towards the universities.

Virtuella världar kan vara så mycket mer än bara spel vilket jag går igenom. Frågan är då vad mer är det och till vad kan de användas? Genom studier och genomgångar av vetenskapliga visar vart det virtuella användandet står idag och till vad virtuella världar kan användas. Jag försöker också ge svar på om det bör vidareutvecklas och användas mer. Det jag går in på är bland annat virtuella obduktioner.

This is the first investigation of the activity with feature film (video) in Swedish publiclibraries.Due to the Swedish copyright legislation, the activity with feature film in Swedish publiclibraries was not possible until an agreement was set between Kommunförbundet and SverigesVideodistributörers Förening in 1989.My investigation is based upon a form that I made in cooperation with Statens kulturråd.The form was sent to the main public libraries in the 286 municipals in Sweden. 250 (87 percent) of the public libraries answered the questions. 130 (52 per cent) of the libraries whoanswered had an activity with feature film.The main reason the libraries bought feature film, was that they hoped that feature filmwould attract new visitors to the library. The investigation also showed that high costs forhiring feature films has a negative influence on the lending of feature films..

There is a lack of published material regarding designing graphical user interfaces of so called integrated video uploading services. The term integrated video uploading services refers to homepages that do not have video uploading as its primary purpose but which still offers that service to its visitors. The aim of this thesis was to improve the amount of published material about designing graphical user interfaces for integrated video uploading services. This was done by performing a literature study to find general design guidelines which can be applied to design of integrated video uploading services. Thereafter the functionality and design of dedicated video uploading services was analyzed.

The aim of this thesis is to study how public libraries in Sweden use alternative shelf arrangements that differ from the library?s original classification system, which in Swedish public libraries usually is the SAB-system. I sent out a survey to 169 public libraries, where I received 114 replies. 77 of these stated that they had some kind of alternative shelf arrangement, therefore these are the ones that are included in my study. I wanted to investigate in what way the libraries had changed their shelf arrangement and why this decision was made.

The major aim of the thesis is to describe the networks, relations and marketing of some university libraries and their customers in the year 2000. I illustrate how these issues interact and whether they have changed due to the recent development of technology and if so, how. The thesis is based on interviews with two directors of libraries and two librarians at two different libraries. A small survey with 16 questionnaires has also been performed in order to get a more general view on librarians' opinions in these questions. The thesis mainly shows that the networks in which the respondents take part primarily exist in the library sphere and towards the universities.

The major aim of the thesis is to describe the networks, relations and marketing of some university libraries and their customers in the year 2000. I illustrate how these issues interact and whether they have changed due to the recent development of technology and if so, how. The thesis is based on interviews with two directors of libraries and two librarians at two different libraries. A small survey with 16 questionnaires has also been performed in order to get a more general view on librarians' opinions in these questions. The thesis mainly shows that the networks in which the respondents take part primarily exist in the library sphere and towards the universities.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine what needs and expectations the patrons have on the local public library services for adult students. With increased knowledge of these matters the library will be able to support and improve the service for users. The focus is on adult students with immigrant background who study Swedish as second language in a municipal adult education school. The main questions are: How do adult students use the library at present? What do they consider to be most important when using the public library for their studies? How do these expectations correspond to their experience of the library services? Two focusgroups and one in-depth interview were carried out.

This study examines the use of building modeling and energy simulations in the design process  of  a  building.  The  take-off  point  is  the  notion  of  energy  simulations  being needed early and throughout the building design process, and that the lack of energy simulations may be explained by the fact that they are time consuming and therefore often too expensive. A greater interoperability between software tools used by relevant disciplines,  such  as  the  architect  and  the  energy  specialist,  would  create  smoother workflows, which would reduce this cost and open up for more frequent and iterative energy  simulation  processes.  The  study  is  an  assessment  of  the  modeling  tool  Revit and  the  simulation  tool  Virtual  Environment  and  whether  they  can  create  smoother workflows, and make leeway for a more frequent use of energy simulations throughout the  design  process.  It  also  investigates  the  limitations  of  what  can  be  examined  by simulations in Virtual Environment. This will hopefully help clarify the future role of energy  simulations  in  design  processes.  The  method  is  a  trial  by  error  approach  of testing the two software tools by building and simulating a model. The results of these tests  show  that  the  workflow  is  not  optimal  (and  therefore  time  consuming)  for frequent  and  iterative simulations  throughout the  design  process,  but  it  also  reveals some  great  possibilities  of  what  can  be  performed  with  these  two  powerful  tools  at hand.  Further  development  with  regards  on  platform  independency  of  the  building information  model,  including  seamless  exporting  and  importing,  seems  necessary  to strengthen the future role of energy simulations..

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the handling and shelving of graphic novels and adult-comics in Swedish public libraries, in order to find out if this type of literature is prioritized in the same way as other forms of literature. The study was conducted by photographing the Hci/uHci shelves at ten different public libraries to give an objective view of the shelving to later be analysed and compared. Inquiry sheets were sent to the photographed libraries in order to get the librarians view of their own comic book shelves and collections. We found that the state of the comic-shelves differed from library to library according to how interested and committed the librarians were. New research areas in the field of Library and Information Science are discussed and questions are raised about the future of graphic novels and adult-comic-books in libraries, about their place in the libraries and about how librarians and the users knowledge of this media can be improved..