This thesis aims to investigate the elements in the implementation of information technology at the National library of Namibia and the library at the University of Namibia. It examines different components that have an impact on the two libraries use of information technology. It deals with the personel, support from the government and foreign aid donours, the users, co-operation with other institutions, the situation for libraries in Africa and the development of information technology in the African and Namibian society.The paper also illustrates the present situation at the two libraries, with their different experiences of the computer equipment, internal databases, on-line connections, CD-ROM and plansfor the future. Prospects for the successful use of information technology at the libraries are also discussed.

The development of digitization and technology has brought new opportunities to produce and access research data. This has generated the need to be able to use and manage data. Data literacy has been listed as one of the great current trends in the library world as a result of new opportunities for spreading and managing data. The purpose of the present thesis has thus been to investigate librarians’ reflection on data literacy. Five librarians at a university library have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews. Interviewees view data literacy as a concept that is closely related to information literacy. Data literacy is said to be about saving, analyzing, citing and reusing data. At the university library, data literacy is viewed through both skills’ development and activities. Since the phenomenon is relatively new, the staff has been given the opportunity to develop skills through workshops in data analysis tools. In addition, the university library has opened two digital labs at two libraries that aim to contribute to creative learning environments for data management and data usage. The library has offered workshops in data analysis programs for users. Data literacy has not been fully implemented in the library’s teaching yet. One of the major challenges in implementing data literacy is to find time to develop skills but at the same time prioritize the library’s core functions. However, informants believe that data literacy will entail new roles for university libraries in the future and that it will affect more than just teaching librarians.

The aim of our bachelor thesis was to study how the personnel incharge of the mobile websites at two University Libraries and thestudents at those Universities viewed the mobile websites, and iftheir views in any way differed.Our research questions were:Why have the examined Libraries chosen to offer mobilewebsites?How do the students at the examined Universities experience anduse respective mobile website?Are there differences between the staff’s intentions with themobile websites and how they are used and experienced by thestudents, and how could they be explained?Semistructured interviews were conducted with six staff membersresponsible for the mobile websites and eleven students that hadexperience in using these. The theoretical framework for thisthesis consists of Klasson’s three models for University Librarianspersonas, and the parts of Rogers theory about diffusion ofinnovations that concerns the attributes of innovations and thecommunication channels.The result of the study indicates that there are some differencesabout how the students use and experience the mobile websitesand the staffs intentions for them. The students required contentwhich the staff had discarded. They also wished to recognise thelayout compared to the desktop website. The overall use of themobile websites was lower than the staff expected. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This master's thesis asks two main questions concerning the history of the City and UniversityLibrary of Gothenburg: what was the prevailing view of the library and its role? Whateconomic support did the library receive and from whom?By critically examining extensive source material mainly from the library archives and cityand state records, these conclusions are drawn: the City and University Library was regardedas a purely scientific library by all involved except the state as early as the 1920s. The state didnot express this view until 1946. The support came almost exclusively from the city ofGothenburg, the state not extending support on a larger scale until 1946 and then onlysporadically. The widely-held view of the library as a scientific one was ignored by the statein its repeated refusals to grant the library support both before and after 1946. ·

The aim of this thesis is to study the phenomenon of read/write OPAC by looking at how students at Pennsylvania University use PennTags in order to influence document descriptions in the library catalogue. The main questions to be answered are to what extent PennTags is being used in different subject areas and what users contribute to document descriptions through tagging in different subject areas. Studying the posts created by a sample of PennTags users from a quantitative approach I try to find out if there is reason to believe that the activity of users and users’ possibility to make meaningful contributions are dependent of the subject matter being dealt with in documents described, as anticipated by the theory of pace layering. I find that user interest in influencing the library catalogue through PennTags appears to be low in general, with exception for in the subject areas of the main classes Language and literature and Social sciences in Library of Congress Classification. Users do however make meaningful contributions to the document descriptions through tagging in 59 % of the cases. The results support only vague evidence of the connection anticipated by the theory of pace layering and I suggest that other explanatory models must be sought in order to understand user behaviour in systems like PennTags. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The main purpose of this Master Thesis is to describe students experiences of learning with Webquest för barnmorskor (Webquest for midwifes) at the University Library of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm. To investigate the possibilities of acquiring information literacy in higher education with the webquest model a qualitative case study is carried out, based on five interviews with students. The students’ perceptions of the webquest course and their ideas on information seeking and information literacy are being analyzed in relation to a framework of learning theory and information literacy expressed by documents and librarians of KI. A descriptive presentation is structured from the main themes that emerged in analysis within the frames of my research questions. The analyse shows that Webquest för barnmorskor carries a difference in theory and practice regarding the content of information literacy. In theory a processual understanding of learning is advocated with a broad definition of information literacy. In practice Webquest för barnmorskor mediates a concept focused on sources and technical skills in information seeking. The later source approach is also adhered by the students. Given that the students reflect upon information use and critical analysis of sources in their main studies at KI, this somewhat limited way of using the webquest model seems successful in adapting the course to the context and prior knowledge of the students.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine how some university students, who are using the libraries extensively, use and experience the public and the university library and what they expect from the two different library types. I also compare their expectations with the different tasks and aims of the two library types. To answer this I have interviewed seven students at the department of history of literature at Göteborg University. I have also studied some literature and research related to this subject, for example user studies about students and libraries and the information behaviour of distance students. In addition to this I have studied the description of the aims of four public and four university libraries. In my empirical study I have used the qualitative interview as a method. To find the informants I wanted to interview I made a short questionnaire study within the students of history of literature at Göteborg University. From the answers of the questionnaires, I chose seven students who I interviewed. The results of the interviews show, among other things, that the informants use the university library entirely for study purposes. The public library is also used for other purposes, such as a meeting place or a cultural centre. The results of the study also show that in the description of aims of the public libraries the university students as a group only are mentioned in one of these documents. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This master’s thesis investigates in which ways students seek out and access their textbooks and how they use their university’s library in this process. Data is collected through interviews from six students several semesters into their studies at the University of Stockholm. For the interviews two students each were selected from the fields of law, economics and humanities. The empirical findings were analyzed using T.D Wilson’s model of information behavior (1997). The model is constructed as a flow chart where the individual’s information behavior is clarified in various activities and processes. I conclude that the majority of the students do purchase at least some of the text books they require for their studies. Other texts are acquired through other means and a certain percentage is not acquired at all. The decision making process of whether and in which way to acquire a particular piece of literature is critically influenced by the student´s context (especially their economic situation). To which extent the university library will be used by students varies widely from student to student. It can, however, be noted that it largely depends on the individual student´s context and general attitude towards the library. For at least a small number of students the university library represents the key strategy to acquire literature. As students gain experience during the course of their studies, they will alter their strategy to a certain extent.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the usage of and attitudes towards electronic books among graduate and PhD students at Karlstad University. The main questions are: How do graduate and PhD students use electronic books? To what extent are electronic books used compared to printed books? To find the answers, a user study was carried out at Karlstad University library. The results show that a majority of the respondents are aware of the possibility to use electronic books but prefer to use printed ones if they have to choose. Many respondents also complained about difficulties reading a text on the computer screen. However, 60% of the respondents are of the opinion that the library should continue to purchase electronic books. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this thesis is to compare two time periods in thehistory of the university library in Lund and to see whatsimilarities and differences can be found. The two timeperiods will be 1883-1900 and 1933-1950. The methodsused to achieve this will be comparative method with theactor- and structure model and document analysis. Thesubjects that will be analyzed with these methods will bepersonnel and the facilities. The two questions I will try toanswer in this thesis will be: A) What similarities anddifferences can be found concerning the personnel and thefacilities in the two time periods? B) What is therelationship between the actors and the structureconcerning the personnel and the facilities like in the twoperiods?A brief background of what took place in Sweden, LundUniversity and the university library of Lund itself duringour two periods is provided. Then my main material ispresented. It mostly derives from the official yearbooks ofLund University Library for the chosen time periods.Other sources for my main material include a Governmentdocument concerning university libraries in Sweden andthe memoirs by Elof Tegnér. This material is thenanalyzed using my chosen methods and then my twoquestions are answered. / Program: Bibliotekarie