The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how public librarians and people engaged in sports associations think of the possibility of collaboration between their organizations regarding children and youth and furthermore how they think this collaboration and collaboration in general would or should be practiced. This is done in the light of the increasing necessity of collaboration in today’s information society as well as the view that reading and sports could make a good match. Focus is placed on the libraries’ perspective and also on the respondents’ perceptions and thoughts. The empirical data were collected through qualitative telephone interviews with seven respondents from both public libraries and sports associations and the results were analyzed using general theories about collaboration from different subject areas as well as the models developed by Patricia Montiel-Overall concerning different levels of collaboration, which were modified to suit the purpose of this thesis. According to the empiric results the majority of the respondents see collaboration in general as a positive activity which helps to develop an organization. Therefore collaboration between public libraries and sports associations is also seen in mostly a positive way but some inhibitors are recognized, lack of time being the most significant. Because of this the thesis concludes that the respondents see lower level collaboration between their organizations as sufficient, even though Montiel-Overall’s models propose that deep collaboration more likely will result in positive outcomes.

The aim of this study is to examine the significance of having a music department at the public library in Enköping, and how the organization of the phonograms is handled. The different areas examined are the reason of the reintroduction of a music department, its budget, its users, the work with selection, the marketing, statistical data concerning loans, the work with classification, indexing, and organization of the phonograms and the future of the music department. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with staff connected to the music department at the public library in Enköping. For the theoretical frame, Sanna Taljas discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland is used. Talja presents three discourses which all show different views on what kind of material a music library should contain. The first discourse, The General Education Repertoire, advocates that the music library should supply a collection that could serve as educational and represent the history of music and its different genres. The second discourse, The Alternative Repertoire, advocates that the music library should serve as an alternative to the sources of commercial music and offer material with a more alternative character. The third discourse, The Demand Repertoire, advocates that the music library should build its collection based on the users demands and needs. The study shows that all three of the discourses are present when material for the collection is selected, even though The General Education Repertoire and The Demand Repertoire are the two most conspicuous. The study also shows that a music department was reintroduced in the library stock based on things like an interest in the art form as such in the library management. The department has had a positive impact on the library's entire statistics, even though loan figures of phonograms have showed a negative trend since the opening. The figures still remain fairly high so the music department is believed to have a future, even though its future also appears uncertain. When classifying phonograms, judgements made by other libraries regarding the work in question, and different sources on the Internet are helpful tools in the process before making a final decision. The organization of the phonograms on the shelves do not in detail follow their classification. Instead they are organized in more rough divisions in order to make the music department more user-friendly.

The aim of this two years master thesis is to explore the relationship between public libraries and deaf adults. I want to know if deaf adults are a prioritized group in Swedish public libraries. Deaf adults use Swedish sign language witch is a visual language and differs from Swedish. I discuss the difference in Swedish Sign Language and Swedish and the importance of Sign Language literature. I also explore what methods can be used for mak-ing the library service towards the deaf group more customer centered and service oriented.The lack of sign language knowledge among the library personnel can lead to communication barriers. I want to illustrate these communication barriers, both psychological and semantic barriers, with Richard Dimble-by and Graeme Burton´s interpersonal communication theory. The psychological barriers consist of negative attitudes and prejudices. In this case these psychological barriers prevent the libraries from further proceedings with the marketing of their service, all based on the notion of deaf being uninterested in library service. This, on the other hand, leads to deaf people not knowing what public libraries can offer and therefor has become some-what of an invisible group in the libraries today.I performed ten surveys on ten public libraries in Sweden and a more detailed questioner to Teckenhörnan in Örebro public library. Thees surveys was done based on the IFLA Guidelines for Service for Deaf People. The result of this survey shows that deaf adults are not a prioritized group in public libraries. The lack of knowledge among library personnel about deafness, sign language and an understanding of the situation of deaf people is an obstacle. It is important to separate deaf from other disabled groups since deaf is more a linguistic minority then a disabled group.

The purpose of this master thesis is to use marketing theory on the library’s activities. The marketing theory used is the 4Ps; product, price, promotion and place, as it's presented by Philip Kotler. Because the library can be seen as a service oriented organization Christian Gronroos theory of marketing in the service industry also has been used. A case study of the public library in Broby was made to illustrate how the public libraries’ activities can appear in the light of marketing theory. The library went through a dynamic development during the case study, due to the fact that the library moved to a new location. The staff and their manager are aware of that they work in a certain context. Their target groups have special needs and the groups get their information from certain places which the library take advantage of. They also use the institutional channels in the public sector such as the public schools to get their message out. According to marketing theory the context is essential to be able to adapt the products you promote and how you do it. Price has long not been an issue for the libraries’ services but price can also be non-monetary. Its important to know what this price consist of to be able to lower it. It might also depend on the context. The staff believes in the importance of the services that the library provide to the community and promote it to their users. But the employees feel that there is a misconceptions of the  library as a collection of books, which they want to change. Because the library offer intangible goods, services, it is hard to change, because the most tangible the library offers are the books. To be able to grasp the service the user therefore focus on these. To get away from this the library can materialize the library’s services in other ways which takes the focus away from the books.

The aim of this study is to show how some persons with one of the Swedish national minority languages as mother tongue use a library with regard to their mother tongue and culture. The research questions are: How do Sami-speaking, Finnish-speaking and Meänkieli-speaking (Tornedalen Finnish-speaking) persons use a library with regard to their mother tongue and their culture? What aspects do they find important in this use? As a theoretical frame I have used Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen’s model of the functions of the local library and Will Kymlicka’s theory of the value of maintenance of minority cultures. The study is a qualitative user study. Deep interviews have been conducted with 9 persons with Finnish, Meänkieli or Sami as mother tongue.The results show that the main use of the library is as a cultural centre and the most frequently used service is borrowing of literature. Most Finnish-speaking persons use the library this way and find it satisfactory. The Sami-speaking persons who read in Sami use the library but the small supply of Sami literature at the libraries is partly a limiting factor. The literature available in Meänkieli is limited, but some use the library to get access to this literature. Exhibitions and cultural arrangements are not attended very frequently and the library’s social function is not very prominent. Some persons use the library in their studies or in their profession to get access to literature in Finnish or Sami. The use of the library as information centre is minimal.The access to literature, the possibility to speak their mother tongue with the library staff and the highlighting of the literature and culture at the library are factors that are important and contribute to language-maintenance and strengthening of the identity. The accessibility to the literature itself and the children’s possibilities to use the library are also important factors. The study is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This thesis is a discourse analysis analyzing public library librarians' talk on the subject of public library meeting places. Within the field of Library and Information Science the public libraries' functions as social meeting places have been scrutinized for more than a decade. Researchers in the Nordic countries in particular have looked at library users' use of the library space and have highlighted the sociologic dimensions of the public library and the meeting place functions. Few however have paid much attention to the library personnel's point of view. The discourse analysis perspective is about language use and how people construct the reality. Using the discourse psychology approach to discourse analysis as a basis of a discourse analytic framework this thesis examines how public library librarians use interpretative practises to construct versions of the phenomena talked about in order to suite the purpose of their talk. The analyzed data material is a transcript from a performed focus group where four public library librarians talked for about one hour on the subject of public library meeting places. The main findings is that the focus group members use eleven different interpretative repertoires in their talk. Interpretative repertoire is a close synonym to discourse. In Sweden the discourse analysis perspective in the Library information science is fairly new. Discourse analysis's made in the Library and information science has mostly been based upon written material. In the thesis it is suggested that there are differences in how discourse practises is being used in talk compared to how it is used in written texts. The talk seems richer on variations and more interpretative repertoires are to be found. The librarians in the focus group move seemingly free between discourses and subject positions. They don't just adapt to existing positions but also construct them to better suite their purposes. Different levels in the discourse order are not upheld in the talk. The impression is that the focus group participants float between discourses' subject positions and interpretative repertoires at all levels in a complex language-game allowing the librarians to take different stands that in a different context would be perceived as conflicting and problematic.

This study examines the experiences of public library staff who works in an LGBTQ-profiled children’s library. The aim of the study is further to find out whether the library as an institution can challenge heteronormativity or if traditional gender identities are reproduced. I have conducted five qualitative interviews with librarians who all work in the same library, and who all work with children to some extent. The interview material is analyzed with queer theory and norm critical theories of pedagogy. These perspectives wish to critically examine heteronormativity and change what is defined as normal. The result of the study shows that the way the library works with separate rainbow shelves, where LGBTQ-themed material is gathered, is pointing out LGBTQ as something different. And although it may also shed a light on a group formerly made invisible, it is reproducing traditional gender identities and leaves heteronormativity unquestioned. By contrast, the way the librarians are working with always including LGBTQ-materials in programming as storytimes and book presentations, is challenging the dominant position of heterosexuality. It is also shown that the way the library staff has developed their written and oral communication with the patrons, including using the gender neutral pronomina ”hen” and alternatives to ”mom and dad”, is increasing the possibilities of an inclusive reception in the library. The oral communication is for various reasons not always used though. In conclusion the interviews show that the librarians are positive to working with LGBTQ-issues although they sometimes tend to forget. The study further concludes that the library’s way of working with LGBTQ-issues is both reproducing traditional gender identities, and challenging heteronormative structures. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The purpose of this thesis in Library and Information Science (LIS) is to examine how the book industry and the public libraries discuss the electronic books values in the Swedish journals Svensk Bokhandel and Biblioteksbladet. The method has been to compare statements from the book industries and the public libraries in articles during the period 2000-2014. Paula Schultz Nybackas thesis Bookonomy - the consumption practice and value of book reading provides the theory of the thesis. The material consists of selected articles in Svensk Bokhandel och Biblioteksbladet.   The results of the analysis show that the book industry and the public library think and treat the ebook differently. The book industry perceive the economic value of the ebook, and the public libraries are focused on the literary value of the ebook. That can explain why the public libraries and the book industry can’t seem to find a solution about ebook lending at the public libraries in Sweden.This is a two-year master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This paper explores the accessibility for patrons with different physical disabilities in regards to materials, service, the library building and its website at two typical, medium-sized public libraries in Sweden. The case study is based on interviews, observations, and document and literature studies. As a theoretical framework for this study, Buckland’s model of information barriers is used to describe, discuss and evaluate how the two libraries work with accessibility. In addition, international and national guidelines are used to measure whether additional actions are required of the libraries to improve the accessibility. The results show that both libraries are well suited in various respects to provide for the different needs and the requirements of patrons with physical disabilities. Some obstacles still exist in both libraries, especially in the lack of literature in accessible formats in different languages. It is unclear whether the barriers that still exist in both libraries are reflections of the patrons’ needs and demands, or lack thereof.

The purpose of this study was to identify the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of community library users in Msunduzi branch libraries, Pietermaritzburg. Identifying the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of community library users in the Msunduzi branch libraries helped to determine whether the Msunduzi branch libraries met their needs or not. The study involved a quantitative investigation into the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of community library users in Msunduzi branch libraries, within the context of community information and community information services. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. The instrument used for collecting data was the self-administered questionnaire. The instrument consisted largely of closed questions and a few open-ended questions. A sample of 200 registered members of Northdale, Woodlands, Eastwood and Sobantu Libraries was surveyed, with 196 respondents giving a response rate of 98%. The validity and reliability of the instrument were established by pre-testing the questionnaire with ten community library users at Georgetown Branch Library. The data was captured onto the computer via Microsoft Excel. The data was then tabulated, and then appropriate analysis was conducted on each question’s data. These were presented in the form of graphs. The community library user’s information needs and information-seeking behaviour was identified using Wilson’s second 1981 model of information behaviour which suited the group under study. The results of the study indicated that the demographic and socio-economic status of the four communities influenced the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of the users. It is evident that in all four communities the information needs of the users were basically related to personal existence, survival and development. In terms of information-seeking behaviour, it can also be concluded that the community library users often used the information providers and information sources which they knew best or those which where the most convenient. Barriers experienced by the respondents were insufficient and relevant materials in the libraries and the lack of internet access. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to address certain problems presented in the study. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.