This thesis examines how library employees experience the library as a Meeting place. Our questions are: What effect has the concept of a "library as a meeting-place" for library staff?How do they see the library as a Meeting place? How do they see their workplace as a venue for meetings? The respondents interviewed work in public libraries. We were inspired by a cultural geographic theory that we re-designed. The following divisions were made in order to give the work a definitive structure:The "mental space"The library as a Meeting place on a global and universal level;The "conceived space"Librarians and planners' thinking on the specific library as a Meeting place;The "living space"How library staff perceive that the library is used as a Meeting place in reality.In our analysis, we use a phenomenographic qualitative interpretive methodology.

The bachelor thesis examines conceptions behind the Swedish public librarian?s opinions of the public library as a Meeting place. The study uses the critical discourse analysis, developed by Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, to analyze a focus group interview. The discourse analysis identifies four themes in the empirical material: the imagined arena of the Meeting place, the behaviour in the Meeting place, the Meeting place?s librarian and the polemic against the Meeting place.

This Master's thesis concerns the public library as a public Meeting place. Our aim has been to find out why and how the library as a social Meeting place has been discussed within the Swedish library community and if there has been a constant core in the discussions from the mid 70's and up to the present day. In order to do this we apply a place and space-perspective. The result of the study is that the core of the said discussions concerning the library as a Meeting place is to create belongingness. This is the reason why the library community has an interest in the public library's function as a Meeting place with the idea that people, by using the public library in that aspect, may experience a feeling of belonging to the society.

The aim of this Master thesis is to study the public libraries' function as a place for people to meet. Four major questions are taken up: + Do the public libraries have the function of a Meeting place? + How important do the librarians and the visitors find the libraries possible function as a Meeting place? Do they think that this function is important? + What differs the public libraries from other places in society when it comes to the function of a Meeting place? + What differences are there between a larger and a smaller library when it comes to the function of a Meeting place ? The basis of this study are interviews with employees at a province library in Jönköping and at a smaller library in Sjöbo in Borås municipality. Our study deals with the history of public libraries, its functions as a Meeting place, its architecture, culture, and statistics concerning numbers of visitors and loans of books. The conclusions that are drawn are that the public libraries have qualifications to function as a Meeting place even if that isn't always the case.

The purpose of my essay is to study the current debate on public library as a Meeting place in the Swedish daily press. I have examined how the meeting function is used and how it is perceived and what it might mean to the public library. Through a selection process, I chose 18 relevant newspaper articles from the year 2006 to 2012. By implementing a content analysis, three themes were distinguished; ?the Meeting place as a place to reside on?, ?the Meeting place as an inclusion? and ?the Meeting place as a culture and activity house? I have used Andersson, Scot-Hansen and Rabers theoretical models of the library's roles for my analysis.

The aim of this project is to investigate the meeting between the city and the sea and tolook into how that could be developed and made use of. I want to find out how you can increase the availability of a specific place and make it more welcoming, I also want to bring life to an already existing space and create a central Meeting place in the city. The purpose is to give form to an esplanade along a dock in the central parts of Kalmar. Starting with an analysis of this public place, I want to create a concept that is close to the existing context and communicates the contrasts or associations between for example: city and nature, artificial and natural and indoor and outdoor. The primary object of the project is to add a welcoming, public place to the city where you on an accessible way canfamiliarize yourself with the meeting between the city and the sea.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to find out what support students of Swedish for Immigrants (sfi) think they get from the public library during their study of the Swedish language. One important aspect in this essay is to examine whether the library can meet the need of Swedish-speaking Meeting places where the sfi-students can practise their new language. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews. Nine sfi-students, one sfiteacher and one librarian have been interviewed. A sociocultural perspective on learning has served as a theoretical starting point.

The purpose with this thesis is to understand the relationship between a square?s design and its function as a public Meeting place, were Sundstorget in the city of Helsingborg is used as a study object. The architect Jan Gehl developed a theory of people?s outdoor activities in his book Livet mellem husene (1996). He divides the activities in three categories; 1) necessary activities, 2) optional activities and 3) social activities, which are differently affected by the place?s design.

This essay takes its point of departure in the need for modern day public libraries to legitimize their place in today?s society. Societal changes call for constant reinvention of libraries and as part of this reinvention, new light is being shed on the public library?s role as a Meeting place. By investigating contemporary debate articles published in Bibliotek i samhälle and Biblioteksbladet, two major Swedish library magazines, this essay aims to categorize and compare different conceptions of the library?s function as a Meeting place.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a Meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive Meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a Meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a Meeting place.

Ten years ago the public computers with Internet access were introduced in the public libraries. The purpose of the public computers was to give the possibility of searching information. Along with the Internet came also communication media like chat and e-mail. This type of communication was a new function for the libraries and the reactions among the librarians were mixed. It has been a source of big frustration and attempts to block it has not succeeded.

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.

The purpose of this thesis is to research public librarians view ofthe public library as a Meeting place and how it may contribute tofacilitate social integration. To study this we have asked thefollowing research questions: How do public librarians work withthe public library as a Meeting place? And how do they contributeconditions for ?soft inclusion??The method we have used for this study is semi-structuredinterviews. Seven public librarians from the Gothenburg areawere interviewed and the empirical material was analyzed usingqualitative content analysis.As a theoretical foundation we have used Dorte Skot-Hansensmodel of the public library as a third place and Mikael Stigendalstheory on social inclusion. Furthermore have we used research onthe public library as a Meeting place and social integration as acomplement to the model and the theory.Conclusions from the material gathered is that public librarianssee the public library as a Meeting place with potential tocontribute to integrating individuals and groups with one another.The librarians? foremost method was to attract visitors withactivities aimed at certain target groups.

This study focus on how physical and virtual Meeting places may promote collaboration between firms and academia for the development of innovations. A case study was conducted on a Meeting place that aims to support collaboration for the development of innovations in eHealth between different actors in the Linnaeus region. Data was collected through 6 interviews, whereas 3 with scientists and 3 with entrepreneurs. The data was analyzed based on a theoretical framework based on different perspectives on collaboration and networks, meetings and interaction and, physical and virtual Meeting places.The results show that the purpose for collaboration is to be included in a network with other actors in the same area, gain increased knowledge of the subject area and to acquire new external contacts. Furthermore, in order to support collaboration, physical Meeting places have to organize effective and interesting meetings.

The object of the thesis is to propose a new lighting plan for the square Fyristorg in Uppsala, and to describe the process which have led to it. It all started when I choosed the place together with the municipality of Uppsala. I have been doing research and analyzed how the place and it´s existing lighting works both during different times of the day and also in the evening. After researching the place and it´s existing lighting I´ve decided to put up the following goals fot the new lighting design. 1. The general light level of the place shall be experienced as higher than today. 2. The light level of the place shall be adapted to the light levels of surrounding places. 3. The lighting shall be free from glare. 4. The lighting shall be adapted to people passing by. 5.The lighting shall be adapted to the surrounding architecture. 6.