The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate three search engines with regard to retrieval effectiveness of information specific to Swedish users. Coverage and the precision in result descriptions are also examined. The three selected search engines are Google, MSN Search and Svesök. 30 queries were tested against the search engines and the first 20 result descriptions and results were judged for relevancy. Relevancy was judged by a binary scale. Micro- and Macro-precision were used to measure the retrieval effectiveness of the search engines. The number of duplicate and inactive links for each search engine was recorded. Precision in result descriptions was used to measure the accuracy of the links. That is if a link was judged as relevant/not relevant it should ideally lead to a relevant page/not relevant page. Coverage was measured by calculating the total amount of retrieved hits for each search engine. The results show that Google reached the highest precision values. The results also show that about half of the links judged as relevant did not lead to relevant pages. That Google also had the best coverage. The conclusions I draw in this paper is that Google is the best choice of search engine for searching and finding relevant information specific to Swedish users. Global search engines are better at finding this information than local ones. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate hospital librarians understanding of their professional role in working with children. Two different aspects of the professional role were focused on; professional knowledge and ethics. The following research questions were posed: - How do hospital librarians experience their professional role in working with children and young people? - What is regarded as professional knowledge content for hospital librarians in working with children and young people? - How do hospital librarians view ethical aspects in working with children and young people? The issues have been addressed through qualitative interviews with seven hospital librarians. We have used phenomenography which is both a set of theoretical assumptions and a methodology. Through phenomenographic method, various understandings of what it means to be a hospital librarian emerge. The results of the study are presented in systematically grouped categories of quotations that reflect these different views. Conceptions of the professional role can be seen as rehabilitative, traditional and social. Conceptions of knowledge relate to healthcare environment, childrens welfare and to the practice of librarianship. Finally, conceptions of ethical aspects in working with children can be related to the healthcare environment, the librarians role and to personal ethical values. Three different aspects of a librarians professional role clearly emerged: the healthcare environment, the personal qualities of the librarian and the librarians view of the librarys function in a hospital context. These aspects form a basis upon which the librarians build their professional roles. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This Masters thesis aims to study the reading habits of readers of romantic fiction, especially focusing on gender issues. The main areas studied are the function of reading romances compared with reading other genres, and how the readers value romantic and general literature. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with seven readers of romances, five women and two men. The theoretical background is based on reader response theory and gender theory. Before I started interview the readers I asked them to read two romances; Sidney Sheldons - The best Laid Plans, and Rosamunde Pilchers - The End of Summer, which we later discussed during the interviews. I have also made a textual analysis of these two romances focusing on gender. The results show that the readers not only read romances, but many different kinds of books. They often chose romances when they are tired, physically and/or psychologically, and want something light to read that will cheer them up. Even though they criticise some of the characteristics of the typical romance, for example the way the characters are described, reading romances most of the time makes them feel relaxed and entertained. My conclusion is that, for this group of readers, reading romances is a "safe" read that does not challenge them or require that very much concentration. This is in contrast to when they read what they call "deeper books", in order to get different perspectives and new knowledge. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this essay, a search strategy for citation index is studied. The strategy, which is essentially a citation cycle, starts with documents retrieved by a subject search, wherefrom new documents are identified following the network of citations backwards and forwards in time. Based on the theory of polyrepresentation, the strategy exploits overlaps between cognitively different interpretations of the same documents in order to automatically select references seed documents used as a starting point for the forward chaining. The purpose of the investigation is to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of the search strategy and to find out whether the strategy can be used to expand a subject search with the help of the network of references in order to retrieve new relevant documents. Two questions are formulated: 1a. What is the difference in precision between the initial subject search and the citation search? 1b. What is the novelty ratio for the citation search? 2. Is there a larger proportion of relevant documents in the overlaps emerging from the citation search, especially overlaps generated by several interpretations? The searches are performed in Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index. Results show that the citation search retrieves additional relevant documents, but that the average precision is low compared to the subject search. On the other hand the average novelty ratio for the citation search is rather high, with an average of 39 %. Very few overlaps on higher overlap levels emerge from the citation search in this investigation. The last question has therefore been difficult to answer. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis has been to study the development of Ordfront förlag from their foundation in 1969 until today, concerning their publishing profile and their size. Ordfront started out as a small publishing house and is today one of the few middle sized publishing houses in Sweden. Their books focus on questions concerning society, debate and politics. The question posed in this thesis was: What has influenced Ordfront förlag concerning size and publishing profile? In order to answer our question we have used a system analytic method, in which we examined some external and internal elements. The elements we have examined are 1 föreningen Ordfront, Ordfront magasin and Bokfront, 2 The Swedish Book Market, 3 Politics and Society. These elements have been compared and analyzed in relation to Ordfront. The theory applied to this thesis is the field theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu. We have found that all the elements affect each other and it is hard to say that one is more important than another. However we have confirmed that the first element has been the most important for the size of Ordfront, while the third element has influenced the publishing profile the most. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the librarian discourses that can be identified in the job advertisements of today, to examine how the discourses differ and also how these discourses might influence the librarian profession and its status. The method of investigation is a qualitative analysis of printed sources, using Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory as well as the theory of professions as a theoretical base. The thesis shows that two discourses can be identified in job advertisements for 2004, one public librarian discourse and one scientific librarian discourse. The major difference between the two discourses are work tasks where the public librarian discourse very often contains areas of responsibility and development work, whereas the scientific librarian discourse often contains administrative work tasks. Other differences include a great demand for driving licences and an interest in children and youth in the public librarian discourse, something which is not asked for at all in the scientific librarian discourse where there is a great demand for knowledge of languages instead. The consequences for the librarian profession and its status from these discourses might be both positive and negative. However, we don't believe that the job advertisements and the discourses we've found in those advertisements can alter society's negative view of the librarian profession. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate and analyse how the concept of lifelong learning is expressed in political documents concerning public libraries and education and how it can be related to earlier concepts of education within the discourse of public libraries. Focus is the official approach to the concept of lifelong learning and public library. The documents examined contain the political aims for education and culture policy on a national and local level. The theories used in the study concern the background and meaning of the concept of lifelong learning, they describe public libraries and their earlier perspectives of education and they also give a picture of practices of governing within the framework of public libraries. The purpose is to see how the speech in the documents is reflected in discourses of society and public library. The procedure is inspired by critical discourse analysis as described by Norman Fairclough. According to this a three-dimensional analytical framework is used. This means that discourse is regarded as text, as discourse practice and as socioculture practice. The result of the study is that there are many similarities between the concept of lifelong learning and earlier concepts of education. What differs is that lifelong learning is strongly characterized by the theories about knowledge society and discourses of marketization. The emphasis on the lifelong and lifewide perspective and the underlying motives for this can be regarded as new elements in the view of education. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This is a qualitative study with a reflexive approach. The aim of this masters thesis is to describe how the internal information is managed in Borås Theatre and Borås Public Library related to the internal flow of information within the organisations according to descriptions of different units, staff and work tasks. Ten qualitative semi-structured interviews with employees at the Theatre and the Library have been conducted. The organisations have been studied separately. The interviews are presented according to six categories presented in the theory chapter as a result of the study. Each category represents different dimensions from which an analysis is done. Formal and informal meetings and other information channels are described. The creative work with the plays creates an open communication between individuals and departments within the theatre. In the Library the staff is organised in teams. Every team has a team leader. The position as team leader is temporary. The idea is that the team leaders will be responsible for a period of three years. One can see a democratic aspect which has influence and impact on the internal communication in the Library. Overall my study shows that one can see internal information from psychological, socio-psychological, political and technical aspects. New questions and opportunities to develop and continue the study have come up during the project. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how young womens sexuality is described in Swedish youth novels. The analysis is based upon eight books of which four were published during the period from 1970 to 1975 and four books were published during 2000 to 2005. The theoretical framework is based on a gender theoretical perspective where Yvonne Hirdmans theories about a gender system and Ylva Elwin-Nowaks and Heléne Thomssons ideas about gender construction are crucial. Also Anthony Giddens theories about sexuality in the late modern society are used, where the plastic sexuality and the pure relationship are central ideas. The method is based upon textual analysis, and a model of analysis is constructed with its basis in the theoretical attempt. The themes of the model of analysis are body and appearance, sexuality and gender construction. The conclusion suggests that the sexuality is controlled by the male hierarchy and that the young womens sexuality is described as subordinated. The young mens sexuality constitutes the norm to which the young women have to suit themselves. It is prominent that the sexuality in the youth literature is controlled by the second principle of the gender system, where the male constitutes the norm. Anthony Giddens ideas about the reflexive self in the modern society are to be found in the analysis. The plastic sexuality is also traceable, but exists at the expense of the young womens integrity. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis was to study librarians approach upon reference questions and available resources and also to find out if there is any connection between the nature of the reference question and the choice of resource. The purpose was also to give a deeper understanding of the reference work. Nine librarians were given ten reference questions and their reference work was tape recorded. The study was completed with seven interviews sent by email. Some of the reflections were translated under the headlines of form, subject, time, language and availability. Various connections between the information searched for in a reference questions and the choice of resource were discussed. The information searched for was defined according to general terms such as focus, dynamism and complexity but also according to subject. One of the opinions offered was that the web was a good source for an unusual subject and/or a narrowly defined less serious subject since there seldom is enough material about these subjects to be found in the library. New phenomena not yet covered by literature were also suitable for a search on the web, with the help of a search engine, or in the newspaper archive. Specific search terms and phrases increased the inclination to use a search engine. Browsing tools were used to search for the official home pages and official databases and also in search for information about a more clearly defined subject. The libraries own material was primarily used, with an exception for official information, for document retrieval. / Uppsatsnivå: D