The purpose of this thesis is to investigate peoples experience when listening at Audio books. During recent years the use of Audio books has increased significantly. With that knowledge and the fact that this is an almost unexplored area within Library- and Information science our interest grew even stronger. The thesis is based on two different theories. To be able to place Audio books in a context we have applied a media- consumption perspective by asking questions like when, where and how the media-consumption takes place.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate in what ways librarians and schoolteachers can co-operate and combine their professional skills in order to help and motivate children with reading and writing disabilities, and how Audio books can be useful in this work. The main source of information is interviews with teachers from ten schools in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. Those teachers, their schools and their local libraries all took part in a project spanning from 1993 to 1996, aiming at increasing the use of Audio books in combination with the corresponding printed versions in work regarding the here addressed problem. This study was made with a qualitative empirical method supported by a normative theory belonging to the new institutional theory school. There are no statistical conclusions in the report.

This Masters thesis is a study of the truck-driver profession and their use of libraries located in gas-stations and restaurants along the highways in Sweden. The reason for this interest is the positive trend that has occurred concerning men without any university education and their reading-habits, that is due to their increased interest in listening to Audio books. This challenges the general opinion that this group is not particularly interested in reading literature. Questions posed in this study are: How do the truck-drivers relate to the activity of reading literature, what part does the road-libraries play, and how can the services that the road-libraries offer be improved according to the truck-drivers. The method used in the study is interviews made by telephone.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how students in higher education use talking books. This has been inves-tigated through qualitative interviews with nine students. The intention has been to find out how they use talk-ing books and why they have chosen to do it in the way they have, looking specifically on whether there are strategies shared by most of the interviewees.As a theoretical basis of the thesis I have chosen a study, described by Sigrid Hongset, where dyslectic pu-pils tried using printed text and text on tape, as well as both simultaneously. George Kingsley Zipfs ?Principle of least effort? will act as a supplemental theory.The interviews show that the students use talking books in different ways.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to, from a users perspective, investigate which factors affect the library use for six persons with disabilities or visual handicaps. My method has been a case study and the methods applied are interviews and observation. As a theoretical framework I use Tom Wilsons theories and models about information behaviour and transform them to a model about library use. Answers are sought to the following questions: - What does the library use look like for six persons with disabilities or visually handicaps? - How do they experience the library in their own municipality? - Which factors affect the disabled persons library use and experience of the library? All interviewees showed a very positive attitude towards the library and the majority of them visited the library regularly or received Audio books by mail.

This study of Swedish history books for grade 9 will examine and compare what the books say about The Holocaust and how it is presented. I analyse how the books present The Holocaust and how it is portrayed. I use questions to evaluate the content of the texts and thereafter I compare them to each other. My hypothesis is that history books are affected by the society in which they are written. Therefore I think that comparing books from different years, I will be able to see a difference between the books when it comes to the way they choose to present The Holocaust.

The purpose of this study was to examine gender depiction in picture books in preschools. Our experience is that many picture books contain old-fashioned gender stereotypes. During the analysing process, we used the following theories: Yvonne Hirdman?s theory about the stereotypic gender contract and Lev Vygotskij?s theory about experiences increasing our ability to fantasize. We read through 154 picture books in two preschools and categorized them into two categories: normative and non-normative books.

The project deals with the evaluation and testing of speaker and microphone elements as well as microphone cavity.The first part of the report comprises a comprehensive theoretical part about drivers, microphone elements, and to some extent microphone cavity.The goal was to , on the behalf of the company Limes Audio AB, develop proposals on microphone element and cavity as well as drivers for a speakerphone application, based on specific factors. The main factors were performance, price and form factor.The aim was to create the best possible conditions for Limes Audio's software developers to implement the company's audio-enhancing software, mainly adaptive echo cancellation.The testing was carried out using Adobe Audition and MatLab. The test methods were developed in conjunction with Limes Audio and are described below.The project will result in suggestions for a speaker, a microphone and a cavity. The cavity were removed from the product because the results indicated that the cavity matter little for the end result.The report concludes with a discussion on how the measurements could have been enhanced to simplify the interpretation of the results and making the testing more efficient..

The purpose of our master thesis was to investigate how a multicultural society is reflected in childrens books picture books, books for children and young people, published in 2002. We found this issue interesting since children of today experience a change in society, where people of many ethnicities, cultures and religions live together to a greater extent than before. Since children in their everyday life are exposed to these different cultures, we think they also should be exposed to them in the books they read. In order to enhance an understanding of why such books are important to children, especially immigrant children, we have in our thesis included a passage with childrens linguistic development, identification and stereotypes. Other passages concern libraries and their roles in a multicultural society.

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.

This research analyzed differences in measurements of magnetic field strength and frequency response in five audio induction loops installed in rooms of wooden construction materials and five audio inductive loops installed in rooms of steel reinforced concrete constructions. The inductive loops were installed at floor level and the measurements were made at the listening height of 1.2m. Measurements of background noise, field strength and frequency response were made at fifteen different measurement points across the room. The research measurements showed that there are differences in field strength and frequency response between these two conditions, whether the audio induction loop is installed in a wooden construction or the audio induction loop is installed in a reinforced concrete construction. The results had a significance level of p=0,05..

The purpose of this this thesis is to evaluate the books that the Library Project "Give me five" uses accoring to their own project objective. Starting in the discussion of censorship that took place in Swedish media, the goal of the project is to defend picture books that portray child's inner and outer worlds. Some of the books are selected by librarians and some preschool teachers themselves have chosen. I have a in a thematic analysis examined if the books' themes meet the requirements of the project goals and if there is any difference on the books that preschool teachers chosen and the ones that the librarians have selected. I have in a image analysis investigated whether they have used books that challenge children's imagery, and if the books portray children's outer world.

The purpose of this paper is to find out which characteristics the female and male characters have in five selected horse books in children's literature. I have analyzed five horse books by Professor Maria Nikolajeva?s gender roles schedule. I have chosen to do a qualitative text analysis and the questions I chose to ask for the books are: Which characteristics does the girls and the boys have in the selected horse books according to Nikolajeva?s gender chart? What is the relationship between the main characters and the horse/horses according to the theories of Backman? What does the typical horse book look like today? What I come to conclusion in my paper is that all the horse books I analyzed have female main characters, and the girls in these books about horses take a lot of space and demonstrate themselves strong.

The aim of my thesis was to examine if educators need to be critical of what they read to the children from a gender perspective. I examined how picture books depict gender and if the books enhances or breaks perception of gender roles. I also examined educator?s perception of gender and if they think picture books can affect children?s perceptions of gender, but also what educators think about gender equality through picture books. The study is based on analysis of five picture books and interview with five educators.The results of analyzes showed that picture books are stereotyped and enhances perceptions of gender roles.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate if gender stereotypes are mediated to children between 0-3 years through books suitable for their age. This thesis concerns books that are available in public libraries. The content will be analysed by using a combination of methods, both content analysis of all the books in our study and a qualitative analysis of a smaller number of these books. With inspiration from both Robert Connell and Yvonne Hirdman and their theories of gender and gender stereotypes, this material was read and we wanted to examine if books for very young children might establish stereotypes. Our analysis showed that many known stereotypes are common in these books.