The study aimed to examine high school student usage of licensed databases available through public libraries in Atlanta-USA. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted via a web-based questionnaire among 135 East Cobb high school students. The findings revealed that most students are aware of these licensed databases, but their usage is low (1:10) compared to Google. However, as students advance in grade levels, their database usage increases and GALILEO is the most-used licensed resource. Factors that influence student database usage include: specific academic needs; teacher instruction to use specific databases and frequent Digital Information Literacy (DIL) instruction. Most students receive DIL instruction at school, but their DIL skills are still inadequate. To increase usage of licensed databases as reliable information resources, the study recommends collaboration between public libraries and high schools, including incorporation of Generation Y's digital information preferences such as Google-type simplified interfaces, cutting-edge technology and time-saving search features. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

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The study aimed to examine high school student usage of licensed databases available through public libraries in Atlanta-USA. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted via a web-based questionnaire among 135 East Cobb high school students. The findings revealed that most students are aware of these licensed databases, but their usage is low (1:10) compared to Google. However, as students advance in grade levels, their database usage increases and GALILEO is the most-used licensed resource. Factors that influence student database usage include: specific academic needs; teacher instruction to use specific databases and frequent Digital Information Literacy (DIL) instruction. Most students receive DIL instruction at school, but their DIL skills are still inadequate. To increase usage of licensed databases as reliable information resources, the study recommends collaboration between public libraries and high schools, including incorporation of Generation Y's digital information preferences such as Google-type simplified interfaces, cutting-edge technology and time-saving search features. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

A questionnaire survey was conducted to ascertain the scope and methods used to involve citizens in public library facility planning and design. Because of the paucity of written material on this subject in the literatures of both library science and architecture, this descriptive study was undertaken.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management and user services of the public libraries staff in Denton County, Texas, by understanding the challenges faced by library staff during the pandemic, adaptation strategies used, and lessons learned for future crises. The study employed quantitative methodology, utilizing a survey distributed online via email to 152 library staff. Participants were selected through a random sampling method, and 107 respondents met the criteria for the study. The findings of the study are as follows: The management issues faced by the library staff involved remote work arrangements, online services provided, the need to increase the number of digital resources available, and staff training. The most common issues staff faced were providing remote library services to the user, balancing work and personal life, and attending virtual meetings using various digital platforms. The public library staff dealt with the COVID-19 changes by increasing their hours on remote work, using digital platforms, and making remote work arrangements. Despite the challenges, most participants gained valuable and positive experiences during the pandemic. It can be said that overall, COVID-19 did have an impact on the staff. The results of this study provide valuable insights for library employees, managers, policymakers, and researchers and offer guidance for future pandemic preparedness.

This thesis examines talking books at public libraries. The thesis focuses on what the digital evolution has cometo mean in terms of Internet-based access to talking books. The survey is based on interviews with library staff and a socio-cultural theoretical perspective. The survey aims to examine the library's talking book function as a phenomenon in which cognitive, physical, communicative and temporal dimensions are considered. The survey demonstrates that the library staff associates talking books with goals concerning everyone's right to access to literature and reading and libraries intermediary role in this regard, which these often tied to broader public librari -es goals concerning the promotion of reading, democracy, accessibility and where the establishment of the service Egen nedladdning is understood from thoughts of greater, easier and more efficient access to talking books for the talking book reader, and as an opportunity for independence for the same. Physical talking books are disussedas a tool that can be used to establish and convey the talking book function in library premises. In terms o finformation dissemination and surrounding activities are made visible not least a network-based method and spontaneous meetings. Egen nedladdning and the app Legimus imparts opportunities for those expressing interestin the face of these, but older talking book readers can communicate a smaller interest in the use of these tools. Recording sessions for the service Egen nedladdning, and possible challenges in connection to these, are also takeninto account and also information and knowledge acquisition among librarians in the case of talking books. Also, the communication and meetings between the talking book readers and library staff are discussed, and the service Egen nedladdning impact on this question. The essay ends with a discussion in which the talking book function at public libraries is discussed based on themes of space, technology and literature brokering and where operational opportunities and challenges in this regard are outlined. This is a two years master’s thesis in Libraryand information science.

The purpose of this thesis is to compare international ideal competencies for Special Collections librarianship to the possibility to acquire these competencies as a student of library education or as a professional librarian with the care of special collections in a public library in Sweden today. The questions posed are: How are international ideal competencies concerning special collections looked upon in Swedish public libraries? How can students or professional librarians today acquire competences necessary for the work at hand in special collections? Suggested in this thesis is to emphasize the importance of understanding that handling special collections demands other skills and belongs to other practices than ordinary work in a public library. The major discrepancy with international ideal competencies consists in the lack of ways for education in the field of special collections for both students and professional librarians in Sweden today.

<p>Information and communication technology (ICT) is foreign to a number of public libraries and those libraries that have a technology infrastructure in place, suffer from an under-utilization of the technology, owing to a shortage of skills that are critical to boost the library into the global information society. It is important that staff in public libraries have the necessary skills and positive attitude to use the technology offered to them. The main objective of this study was to determine the use of ICT's in Nyanga, Brown's Farm and Crossroads public libraries and make recommendations towards effective use of ICT in the above-mentioned public libraries.</p>

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether there is a connection between distance to the schoollibrary and the extent to which teachers are using it as an integral part of their teaching. The study aims to answerif the physical distance to the school library is affecting teachers' ways of working with the library, if it affects thecollaboration between teachers and librarians and finally if teachers that are using a school library outside theschool premises are doing so less as an integral part of their teaching compared to teachers that have access to aschool library within the schools premises.The study is based on qualitative interviews with six teachers in the intermediate stage of the nine-yearcompulsory school, of which three have access to a school library within the school premises and three haveaccess to a school library outside the school premises. The two groups of teachers are compared in order to findout if there is a connection between distance to the school library and the usage of it. Loertscher's school librarymedia program and teacher taxonomy have been used as a theoretical framework.The study shows that the teachers who use a school library within the school premises have a bettercollaboration with the librarians than the ones who use a school library outside the school premises. The studyalso show that theese libraries are an integral part of the teaching to a higher degree. However, it is not shownbeyond doubt that the physical distance to the library is the determining factor for the teacher's results. Otherfactors, such as the fact that the school libraries outside the school premises at the same time are functioning aspublic libraries, may also have influenced the result.This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Mediation of fiction for adult users in Swedish public libraries is a subject which has been little studied from a theoretical perspective. The motivation for this thesis was based on this realization, and the opinion that actual library users too seldom get their voices heard in library and information science-research. The thesis analyzes interviews with seven library users in which they have been asked to talk about the librarys work with mediating fiction. The answers are analyzed using a discourse analytic approach to see how the librarys work with mediating fiction is constructed in the users talk. Two main discourses are identified, one authoritative and one neutral. In the authoritative discourse librarians are talked of as experts who have the knowledge to guide users to the ”right” literature. In the neutral discourse the librarians role is to be open to all different kinds of literature that may be demanded by users. In librarians talk, as seen in previous studies, the mediation of today was often talked of as oriented towards performative experiences and a more personal role for the librarian. The traditional roles of librarian as mediator and user as recipient were being loosened up as there was talk of more user engagement in the mediation. This way of talking about the mediation however, was not that evident in the interviews with users. One could say that the users had a more conservative view. The public library does'nt have to be either a place that only values high quality literature or only happenings and user engagement. It should be the library's role to communicate more complex pictures of the library to the public. It should also be a task for libraries and people who do research on libraries to listen to the voices of real users, even if they don't always come with simple answers to how the library should develop their work with mediating fiction. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.