Uppsatsen består av en studie om de faktorer som påverkar olika aspekter av komfort i regn-jackor och ytterjackor samt en undersökning över behov av regnjackor för stadsmänniskor som vill klä sig city-snyggt, men ändå ankomma torr och presentabel till sin arbetsplats. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att ta reda på om ett samband fanns mellan de komfortupplevelser som uppstår hos användare av regnjackor och användare av ytterjackor. Genom teoristudier utvärderades betydelsen av komfort som därefter ledde till en enkätundersökning samt analys av de komfortupplevelser som uppstod hos användarna av regnjackor och användarna av ytterjackor. De allmänna teoristudier i ämnet komfort gav djupare förståelse över vilka huvudsakliga faktorer som påverkar komfortupplevelserna i regn- och ytterjackor. Referenser som användes för teoristudierna var tidigare gjorda kandidatuppsatser, tidskriftsartiklar, vetenskapliga artiklar och föreläsningar. Enkäten som utformades gav svar på de olika aspekterna av komfort. Intresse och behov av en regnjacka för stadsmänniskans olika tillfällen kunde tolkas genom svaren från enkäten. Enkäten skickades ut och 88 personer svarade på de 16 frågor den bestod av. Svar från personer med olika åldrar, kön och sysselsättning kunde fås med hjälp av enkäten. Diagram och analys gjordes för att ta reda på behoven hos de som ägde en regnjacka och behoven hos de som inte hade en. Undersökningen visade inte bara att många svettades i sin regnjacka utan även att man upplevde det som en störig faktor. Prassel var en subjektiv upplevelse hos materialet och en faktor som direkt störde konsumentens psykiska komfort. Genom att kombinera teoristudier och enkätundersökning kunde man konstatera att det fanns ett samband mellan användare av regnjackor och användare av ytterjackor. Gemensamt var hur användarnas psykiska komfort kunde bli påverkad av materialkaraktär, passform och designkonstruktion. Dessa konsumenter bär regnjackan endast för att få det skydd man behöver, men bär den utan ett självtroende. Den totala komfortupplevelsen påverkas drastiskt redan när psykisk komfort blir sänkt. Resultatet av studierna och undersökningen antydde på att det finns ett behov av en regnjacka med hög modegrad. Arbetet som bestod av studier om komfort och enkätundersökning resulterade i ett underlag som kan användas i framtida produktutveckling av regnjackor. / Program: Textil produktutveckling och entreprenörskap

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate three web-based search engines and compare the 10 first retrieved documents. We used the search engines Google, Yahoo! and Exalead. The evaluation is based upon 20 topics with strong polarized opinions and these have been derived from Swedish media and every day life. From these topics we have constructed the 20 queries used for searching. The 10 first documents are each placed in four different categories, For, Against, Neutral or Irrelevant. For and Against are opposed to each other regarding different opinions in the 20 topics. The purpose of this is to get a picture of the different topics, seen through the three search engines. Does one of the categories weigh more heavily than the other, represented in the 10 first documents? If this is the case, does the same category weigh more heavily in all three search engines, or how do they deviate from each other? The results showed that one of the categories, in most of the topics, weighs more heavily than the opposed category. The opposed category is in some cases not represented at all in the 10 first documents. In some of the topics, the same category weighs over in all three search engines, but in more than half of the topics the different search engines deviate from each other regarding the opposed categories. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The starting point for the present study is that the physical environment can enhance the learning processes of children. We want to contribute to more focus being placed on this within library and information sciences. Our main aim is to illustrate how the physical environment can facilitate the learning of children. In order to achieve our aim, we examine a concrete physical environment, namely the children’s department at the main library in Kungsbacka. We have attempted to answer the following questions:1. How does the staff of the children’s department look upon the relationship between the physical environment and the learning of children?2. How can the physical environment influence the accessibility to the information systems SAB and the children’s catalogue at the children’s department in Kungsbacka?3. In what way can the physical environment at the children’s department at the main library in Kungsbacka facilitate the learning of children?Material has been obtained through qualitative observations and a group interview with the staff of the children’s department, and analysed with the help of interactionist theories and a socio-cultural perspective on children’s learning. We have found that the physical environment at the children’s department supports the learning of children in several ways. The accessibility to the material available at the library is enhanced by classification into genres. A rich supply of toys and inspiring environments enables the children to be active. Yet the study includes proposals for improvement, including inter alia better exposure of the children’s OPAC, adaptation of the division for non-fiction literature and measures to enable children to influence the environment. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this study is to investigate methods of collection development, the users’ influence on selection and quality aspects, focusing on non-fiction literature in Swedish public libraries. To find out opinions of collection development, I use the method comparative literature study. Antonio Gramsci’s concept hegemony forms the theoretical background, and hegemony as concept is related to a library context by using Maj Klasson’s text on the librarians’ different positions of authorities. The focus of the study is therefore on the librarian’s position as authority, in contrast to the users’ position, regarding selection of non-fiction literature. A short historical review leads to the factors influencing collection development today. Swedish library policy documents, the Swedish library constitution, Unesco’s public library manifesto are some of the formal factors influencing collection development at Swedish public libraries. The analysis consists of three macro themes found while reading the empirical texts: collection development, quality aspects and users. These macro themes are divided into micro themes in order to analyse the chosen empirical texts. The result of the study shows a difference in authority between librarians and users regarding collection development, the complexity of non-fiction literature and the users’ influence on literature selection. These authority differences is expressed in the texts as whether the librarians or the users are considered as the authority, and why, in developing methods for literature selection. Concerning quality aspects, a difference was found between the texts, since one of them acknowledges the users as the most important reference to select quality literature, and not the librarians. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This thesis discusses and analyses the existence of two different perspectives, a social and a technical one, in Library and Information Science (LIS). Most of the time the division between these perspectives seems to result in research only using either of them. This can be a problem when studying complex phenomena. We therefore see a need for a metatheory that unites the social and the technical. By presenting and analysing all doctoral dissertations published at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) 1993-2005, we try to detect and critically discuss the dichotomy between the two perspectives. The analysis of the dissertations is done with an Actor-network theory (ANT) perspective. The outcome is that most of the dissertations are written using either a social or a technical perspective, though not all of them. As a way out of the division between the social and the technical, we discuss the possibilities for ANT as a new metatheory for LIS. A few examples of international ANT writings in LIS are also presented briefly to show the possibilities of that metatheory. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of social distance used by the librarians and users in the virtual reference interview. With a conversational analysis and applied politeness theory 49 chat transcripts where analysed in order to answer the question of how the interlocutors positioned themselves regarding the social distance between them. By identifying what communicative strategies where used the following results were found. Generally the social distance between librarians and users is low in the Swedish virtual reference interview. Even though both parties used informal and casual language the results indicate that the librarians face wants were valued slightly higher than the users which were illustrated by a some what higher social distance in the stages of the conversations when the librarians face was under most threat. The conversations were relatively symmetrical and it was also concluded that feedback and positive utterances contributed to lowering the social distance. Thus the analysed transcripts can be said represent a form of institutional conversation that is of a personal and informal character. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The object of this study is to examine the effective functionality of an OPAC-system while a few participants interacted with the catalogue. I’ve used Carl Martin Allwood’s (1998) four designed usability factors to be able to estimate the effective functionality of the online catalogue. Theoretic basis is Human Computer Interaction together with Allwood’s four defined usability factors. They are: adjustment, ease of use, user acceptance and user competence. This study is conducted with a verbal protocol method which encourages the seven participators to “think aloud” while performing tasks. The study shows that the participants interact most effective in those functions they’re accustomed with. Which indicate that the OPAC-system have a high grade of user acceptance. The end users with more experience of using Internet search engines requested similar search capabilities and settings in the online catalogue. They tend to lack a little bit of understanding to the limitations of the OPAC which therefore indicate their lack of user competence. Some task problems occurred while the participators interacted in steps and functions they weren’t familiar with. They also spoke of the difficulties with subject searching and that they would like to know the best way to make search queries. I estimate some need of more user friendly functions and services, especially in the help section. The study shows that it is essential to educate users in ways to interact with the OPAC-system in a more effective manner.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to study an electronic reference service from a user perspective. By qualitative interviews with eight students the thesis examines their information behaviour, why and when they use the service, the user’s experiences of the service and the communication with the librarian. The users have all used the Swedish electronic reference service Fråga biblioteket – Forskningsbibliotek. We analyse the material by extracting conceptions of literature and earlier research concerning the questions our study is based on. Our theoretical framework is based on Brenda Dervin’s theory on sense-making and Carol Kuhlthau’s model of the information seeking process. The results of the interviews show that students want quick answers and a service that is convenient and easy to use, which they consider this service to be. They also want useful information but that does not mean that they actually use the information they receive, sometimes they change it to suit their situation.Despite being experienced users of the library, this new service can generate feelings of uncertainty but information on how to use the service and the reception by the librarian can alter this. Questions students have do not cause any thoughts on issues of integrity or anonymity and they seem to have a solid trust in libraries and librarians in general. The conclusion of this study is that users do not really know what demands they can have on the service, but that can change by clearer information about the service and by user education. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine in what way library users are depicted on images at two academic libraries; the University College of Borås Library & Learning Resources (BLR) and the Gothenburg University Library (GUB). 62 images, from websites and information brochures, are analyzed and the main questions are: How are users represented on images? What activities are shown? What is the difference between BLR and GUB? How can the consequences of the representations be understood? Little is currently known in the LIS-field about how images work as constructors of the social reality. The theoretical and methodological point of departure of the study is discourse analysis, new institutional theory and picture analysis. The result of the analysis is that BLR shows a larger variety of activities than GUB, and more users using the computer. The typical user on the images from GUB is sitting in a large study hall alongside with a large number of other users. Women are more often depicted than men in the whole material and the images reveal an absence of personal-user interaction. The users are shown as independent. A general impression is that GUB, considering the long history and the unanimous images, is more institutionalized than BLR. Both the behavior of the users in the library and the making of new library images are influenced by the existing images. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The main purpose of this Master’s thesis is to develop an understanding of why non-users do not use public libraries by studying their information and culture habits and their relationship to public libraries. One of the motivating factors behind this choice is the lack of earlier research on the subject, particularly qualitative research. The theoretical framework is stratified into three associated levels with Brenda Dervin’s sense-making theory on an individual level, Marianne Andersson’s and Dorte Skot-Hansen’s model of the roles of public libraries on an institutional level and Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical apparatus on a social level. Eight interviewees were chosen based on a set of selection criteria and interviewed with semi-structured interviews. After an analysis and discussion of the collected empirical data the main conclusion is that there are obstacles to the use of public libraries on three related levels, corresponding to the levels in the theoretical framework. On an individual level the impediment is that the non-users are content without the public library: they have a lifestyle where the needs of culture and information are satisfied through the use of other channels than public libraries. The view of the public library as non-attractive and not adapted for their needs constitute a hindrance on an institutional level while the social distance between the non-users and people strongly linked to the public library, such as librarians and frequent users, constitute a barrier on a social level. Altogether, these obstacles rather clearly indicate why public libraries are not used. / Uppsatsnivå: D