The purpose of this essay is to investigate adult students information seeking. We draw a distinction between traditional timetabled studies, flexitime studies and external studies. For many adult students flexitime studies and external studies involve a new kind of studying. The new types of studies entail that adult students must apply themselves to more information seeking. In our study we investigate how the students proceed when seeking information.

This Master?s thesis is the first to quantitatively study the prevalence of library anxiety at a Swedish university. Library anxiety is a concept describing the negative feelings students can experience when using the library. The study was conducted using web questionnaires sent out to 512 students at Växjö university. 38 % responded and the results were analysed with the help of, amongst other methods, correlation studies.

The main object of this master thesis is to examine whether domain-analysis could be used toorganize the collections in a library serving interdisciplinary studies, and in that case - howthat could be done. The thesis is based on a case study of a library for Asian studies, which alsoserves as a library specialized in that subject in the Nordic countries. The author has used, i.e.interviews and observations examining who the users of the library are and how these seekinformation. A theory part deals with some earlier studies of information users within arts andsocial sciences, and these are compared to the users of the examined library.The thesis states that one has to look at the different disciplines in which research is done (andcould be done) at the institute to which the library belongs, and that subject terms could beadded to the various documents from the view of those domains..

This thesis examines the perception and use of the school library for students at an Upper Secondary School. The school has a high frequent of immigrant students, and the students interviewed all have an immigrant background. The intention was to find out how the students used the school library and what perception they have of the school library. The method used was semi-structured interviews with eight students, both males and females, who studies different educational programs. The instrument of theory was that from Elisabeth Tallaksen Rafste?s theoretical framework.

This Masters thesis concerns difficulties experienced by Gender Studies researchers in an information seeking context. The aim is to identify, and study the cause of, these potential difficulties by asking the following questions: How do researchers in Gender Studies seek information? What difficulties may arise when information seeking is carried out in Gender Studies? What may be the cause of these difficulties? What does Gender Studies consist of? In order to find feasible answers to these questions, particular attention is paid to the context in which the researchers exist and work. The database KVINNSAM serves as an example of how libraries have tried to overcome barriers in information seeking in Gender Studies. The method used is a qualitative one based on interviews and literature studies.

Usability studies are not a central field of research in library and information science. Although literature in library and information science treats the importance of usable user interfaces quite extensively, the literature does not significantly treat potential problems in measuring usability. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate, through a critical analysis, the methods used when conducting usability studies in library and information science. The critical analysis is based on potential problems in measuring usability identified through a literature review from the field of studies Human-Computer Interaction, the concept of usabilitys original domain. The material which is to be analysed, is chosen from one library and information science journal Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

The aim of this study is to understand how the library environment affects the experiences and feelings of public library users. In order to concretise this, the study sets out from the public library in Bollebygd. We wanted to find out how the library users experience the library environment. Does the library environment affect the meeting between library users? How does the environment affect their moving patterns inside the library? Which environmental factors influence the users' experiences? Our questions were: how do users experience the library environment - as a mediating space for information and culture? - as a social room and meeting place? The material used to attain the purpose of the study consists of qualitative observations and interviews, and literature studies.

Studies of the information needs of library patrons are necessary in order for the library to serve the community. Alas, studies of non-heterosexual persons are rare in the field of Library and Information Science in Sweden. This study aims at examining the information situation of women in same-sexed parenthood by means of analysing their situation as norm-breaking. The study is done through examining the specific information needs of this group, how they seek and receive information, what barriers they encounter and what function the library has in this information situation. A queer theoretical approach to heteronormativity in combination with McKenzie?s two-dimensional model of information seeking is used to perform a qualitative analysis of the material.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how students who study with Problem-based learning PBL in a distance learning course perceive the support from the university library. I first went into adult education, PBL and distance studies, one at a time, and then took a look at the combination of problem-based learning in distance studies. During the investigation, I conducted five interviews using a phenomenographic method to understand how the students perceived the support they received from the university library. The university library gives a lot of support but what I noticed while I was writing was that it is difficult to reach the students with the information regarding the help that is available to them. I give some example on how to develop the support and find that the students have a wide range of different needs for support from the library depending on their individual situation, social context, academic ability, location and course of study.

This Masters thesis in Library and Information Science has the title The New Information Desks at Malmö Public Library . During the rebuilding of the library in Malmö a new information desk was developed. This desk differs to a great extent from conventional information desks used in libraries. The information desk is triangular with rounded edges which allows the librarian and the user of the library to work side by side without any physical barriers. The aim of this thesis is to explore the requirements for the information desks formulated by the library and how they are perceived by the librarians and the users of the library.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how high school students use their school library for their information-seeking. The theoretical framework is based on Louise Limbergs three categories of students views on information-seeking and Andrew Large and Jamshid Beheshtis three categories of students choice of information systems. Qualitative interviews were used and seven high school students were interviewed. The empirical material was compared and divided into 9 categories. The results show that the students see the school library as a place where they can search for information, but its also considered to be a good place to hang out between lessons to study or to meet friends.

The aim of this study was to map the intellectual base at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) at the University Collage of Borås, and to compare this intellectual base to the intellectual base of the research area Library and Information Science. This was done by analysing the citations in publications published, between the year of 2001 to the first quarter of 2006, by researchers at the institution, using the technique of author cocitation analysis. Cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, statistical techniques that are traditional i the author cocitation analysis, formed an objective map of the intellectual base at the SSLIS. This map was then compared with three prior studies, that used the same technique to map the intellectual base of the research area. The result shows that the map of the intellectual base at the SSLIS consists of the specialities: user studies, library studies, culture/cultural policy, information retrieval, bibliometrics and information in organisations.

Fountain of Knowledge? The Changing Role of the Library at the Upper Secondary School Level. There have been many changes in the Swedish society in general, and in the school system and hence the school library in particular during the last decade. The aim of this master thesis is then to study what students at the upper secondary school level consider to be the optimal school library to meet their specific information needs at school. In addition to and in comparison with this, the aim is also to study the present conditions of the upper secondary school library as described in documents, reports and other studies in this field.

The main purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of information needs of eight vocational studies teachers at the Handicraft Programme at a senior high school. I have analyzed the teachers? needs of information and the empirical material has been collected through interviews with eight vocational studies teachers. To analyze the interviews I have used Lars Höglund and Olle Persson?s model for information needs and a model for information sources.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate how the students at Chalmers University of Technology at Lindholmen in Gothenburg use libraries in their schoolwork. The empirical material consists of the answers of questionnaires that were handed out to two classes of students, on the second year of their education. To illustrate the topic there are a theoretical frame and examples of earlier studies. The theoretical frame is Limbergs texts that deal with for example information seeking and how important it is in all education. The earlier studies are about student's different ways of using libraries.