Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California at Berkeley, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-307).

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how collaboration is represented in guiding documents and practice concerning reading promotional work towards children and youth within Sandviken’s cultural center’s public library and the house of literature. This is examined through a case study of the public library’s and the house of literature’s activities for children and youth, with a focus on how collaboration affects the organizations work towards these target groups. The empirical material consists of legal texts from national, regional and municipal levels, documents, and guidelines for the two organizations, as well as qualitative interviews with librarians and activity developers within the library and house of literature’s practices. The empirical material is analyzed with the use of Kajsa Lindberg’s organizational definition of collaboration and focuses on how collaboration is perceived, motivated, what unifying objects that exist between different professions and which promoting and inhibitory aspects that can be identified. The analysis shows that motives behind collaboration often involve different categories of motives at once and that they synergize with one another. Librarians and developers experience collaboration as more fruitful when sprung from practice rather than from directives stated in documents. However, the result from this thesis indicates that the documents have a valuable function in putting collaboration on the agenda within public libraries and making decisions to establish and invest in such activities more legitimate. The results further indicate that the organizations within the case have promoting prerequisites that are specific for their local context such as engaged politicians and a strong local cultural tradition, but that the benefits that can be identified in some measures can be achieved elsewhere using the prerequisites at hand. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information science.

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's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time – in terms of participation and equality – at a specific library. Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study. Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology. Furthermore, Inclusion, a child's perspective, as well as context and gender pedagogy are concepts thoroughly integrated in the analysis and discussion of the results. The main results define the communication and interaction during story time in this specific library. The communication between children and the librarian proved to be dynamic and the use of artefacts was an effective way to stimulate this. The analysis of the results of the developmental process of the story time, indicated that the pedagogical approaches and self-reflection were crucial elements for change. The study's main action was to use a standard challenging book during story time. This proved to be effective in enhancing such self-reflection and for the critical discussion about equality issues. The process itself was also thoroughly visualized in the material. In my conclusion I reflect upon the relationship between the appearance of the communication and the story time context, as well as the relationship between the pedagogical approaches and development. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This study examines the cultural place and status of video and computer games in the Swedish public library. Using works on popular culture and the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this study employs quantitative methods, as well as textual analysis, to analyze the results of an online questionnaire with 19 questions focusing on selection criteria, shelf placement, perceived competence, as well as reasoning for having or not having these games in the library. 286 out of the 440 libraries contacted is participating in the study, and the libraries consist exclusively of public libraries in Sweden that are found in the database of the Royal Library. The results of this study show that a larger number of libraries than previously indicated have started to provide electronic games to their patrons. At the same time, patterns in the data and comments suggests that these games in many cases still do not enjoy the same level of cultural recognition as other media. Indicative of this is the way most libraries seem to focus on the medium being exclusively for their young patrons, with seem-ingly very little in the way of investment for adults. Also relevant is selection process being highly influenced by the type and amount of violence in the games, regardless of the level of competence and knowledge about games among library staff. These findings relate to and expand upon previous studies regarding electronic games, cul-ture and the public library. This study constitutes a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Introduction. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the means of control that a municipality has over privatized library services. Specifically what methods of evaluation it uses, and how it formulates its demands in contracts and other documents. The case study was the municipality of Nacka, Sweden. Method. All documents investigated in the thesis with information concerning the public libraries of Nacka kommun were gathered from the municipality's website and archive. Interviews were conducted with representatives of the two contractors currently in charge of operating the six library branches of the Nacka library system. Analysis. Document analysis was used to identify sections of text with relevant information. Taking into account the status and relationship of the source documents theses were arranged thematically according to a model of organizations proposed by Charles Perrow. The motive of the analysis was to identify the ends the municipality has in mind for the libraries and what means they propose to use to reach those ends. Perrow’s concept of bounded rationality was used to look for inconsistencies in the relationship between means and ends in the organizational structure. Insights gained from the interviews were used to corroborate the findings. Results. Instances of bounded rationality was found in the way the municipality specifies and evaluates the work of the external contractors. Further studies should take into account the interests of the contractors and how that affects the privately run public libraries. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Creative spaces, or makerspaces, is an emerging and global phenomenon in libraries. The aim of this study is to examine the objectives that underlie the creative spaces in Australia, expressed by library professionals, as well as the purposes they fulfil in the library context. The material is derived from seven in-depth interviews with staff working with creative spaces at three public and one state library. Additionally, one observation was conducted in the creative space at each of these libraries. “The four spaces model”, created by Danish researchers Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot-Hansen, comprises the study's theoretical framework. According to the model, the library's objective is to support the goals: experience, involvement, empowerment and innovation. The library spaces, in which the goals should be supported, are the inspiration space, the learning space, the meeting space and the performative space. The study shows that the most distinct objectives of the creative spaces are experience and empowerment. Involvement and innovation are also present, but not as prominent. Further, the study shows that the purposes fulfilled by the creative spaces places them within the learning space and the meeting space, and to some degree in the inspiration space and the performative space. Findings reveal that creative spaces support STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and maths) learning and digital literacy through both collaborative and individual learning. The learning takes place in informal settings where play is a significant factor. The creative spaces function as “high-intensive” meeting places for the local community, and the library professionals highlight the importance of the social aspects of the creative spaces. This is a two years' master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how Swedish public libraries approach and regard lesbian pulp fiction as a genre, from both a historical and modern perspective, and also to visualize and critique the surrounding discourses that influence the perception and reception of the genre. The method is twofold and consists of qualitative interviews as well as discourse analysis inspired by Foucault. The data consists of interviews with three librarians responsible for library collections, selection and purchase of new library materials which is combined with a survey reading of Biblioteksbladet, the periodical of Svensk Biblioteksförening, from 1945–1990. Michel Foucaults theories on discourses and the principles and mechanisms of exclusion, and Pierre Bourdieus theories on taste and distinction, guide the analysis. The analysis focuses to a great extent on discursive patterns, especially concerning the relationship between popular and quality fiction, and components of Bourdieus field theory and how this contributes to the creation of taste through distinction. Throughout the analysis possible explanations regarding the position of lesbian pulp fiction are given which covers areas from classification and interpretation of literary genres to quality assessment, selection and purchase of literature. The results of the study shows that lesbian pulp fiction is quite invisible in Swedish public libraries which is mainly seen as an effect of discursive practices that surround and influence the genre such as the societal and historical view of homosexuality but also the view on popular literature. Conclusions are that librarians are not making conscious exclusions of lesbian pulp fiction per se, they are if anything quite unaware of the genre’s existence, but that the practices that shape the field of public libraries has contributed to the genre’s position. The study is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science written at Uppsala university.

This master’s thesis in Library and Information Science examines the phenomenon ”pop up library” and how public libraries are working with projects within this area. The method to collecting data is qualitative interviews with represents from five libraries in Sweden. The theoretical framework mainly consists of theories from mar- keting management especially adapted for non-profit organizations and libraries. The main results of the study shows that the purpose of why the libraries are using this method is to attract new users, make the library more available, marketing the library, work with reading promotion, start up and/or develop cooperation’s with other organizations or units within the municipality. One desire with the pop up libraries is to attract people to also visit the physical main library but there is also a fear among the informants that some people will think that the pop up library is the only library in the community. Common factors seen in my informants view of pop-up library are: temporary, unexpected and adapted for the target audience and the environment. Pop up libraries is much about relationships, to build and develop relationships with both partners and prospective users. Pop up libraries can be seen as buzz marketing, an effective way to advertise with small means. By making them into "a hot topic" it generates a buzz and publicity in local media. The pop up libraries in this study are primarily implemented as projects, funded by external project funding. They do not require as much resources to implement but is more difficult to engage in regular activities. The opportunities that libraries see with the pop up library concept is to continue to reach out to new audiences by using new creative ways. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Introduction: Indigenous matters are viewed as a priority by the library profession around the world and the library law in Sweden states that the national minorities, which include the indigenous Sámi people, are a prioritised group. Despite these facts there is little research on indigenous matters in relation to libraries, library practice, and service. In Sweden especially, there is little focus on the colonial heritage and what effects, if any, it has on the library. Method: This essay aims to examine three areas. First, how libraries in Sweden work to promote and support the Sámi population in regards to culture, language, and identity. Second, what needs and wishes the Sámi population have in regards to library service. Lastly, whether or not the colonial heritage is visible in library practice and service and to what extent. The colonial heritage and its effects is a pervasive theme throughout the essay. To answer these questions three librarians from two different libraries and three Sámi informants were interviewed.  Analysis: Since the heritage from colonialism is a key theme it was natural to apply a postcolonial framework for the text analysis of the interview transcriptions.  Results: The findings show that the colonial heritage is still visible in library practice and service, although not deliberate from the profession. The two libraries in question are working to counteract the colonial heritage while promoting and supporting the Sámi population by providing books in the Sámi languages and making effort to give them a prominent place in the physical library room.  Conclusion: There is still a need for improvements in regards to giving the languages a prominent place in the libraries with for instance signage and shelf placement. As well as organising activities for and about the Sámi population, as pointed out from the Sámi informants. One solution may be to give the Sámi status as an indigenous people in the Swedish library law instead of merely status as a national minority. This could give libraries the economic resources they often lack and thus motivating them to prioritise and make extra efforts in their work to the Sámi population. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.