The Swedish institute of racial biology was the first of its kind in the world. The purpose of their activity was to gather information about the different kind of racial characters of the Swedish population. They did this by traveling around the country gathering pictures and statistic information. In 1958 it was decided that the institute was going to get integrated with the University of Uppsala and change its research focus to a more medical genetic. Most of the research material also got integrated into the university’s library.The purpose of this paper is to find out how the institutes collection has been handled through the ages and if there have been any controversy or debate about it. To put it in perspective I also want to see how the University of Uppsala handles other sensitive materials in their collection.The collection has always been open to everyone who wanted to take part of its content. But the documentation of the collections handling has been poor and quite a big part of the collection has been lost, for unknown reasons. The only part of it that has been restricted is the material that contains pictures of naked children. These restrictions were set just a few years ago by Uppsala University, and they are almost ineffective since the librarians have no means to uphold them.There seems to be a lack of discussion about the handling of material of a sensitive nature on behalf of the librarian community. Since there apparently needs to be some sort of restrictions towards some material in the libraries collections, this restrictions need to be discussed so they get the desired effects. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Swedish university libraries traditionally collect recreational readingmaterial only to support the teaching and research interests of theirinstitutions. However many university libraries hold a substantial yetunspecified collection of popular fiction. This thesis investigates theextent of these collections and examines academic librarians' viewsabout students' recreational reading in the academic context and theirattitudes towards the role of fiction and of readers' advisory inacademic libraries. The theoretical framework includes literature andresearch about the benefits of reading for pleasure, collections' rolesand readers' advisory strategies. The empirical material was gatheredthrough quantitative surveys sent to academic librarians in Sweden.The results show that academic librarians are positive about thebenefits of recreational reading for university students. However themajority of them do not believe that it is their responsibility to provideleisure reading material or promote extracurricular reading. Based onthe literature review, on the theoretical framework and on the researchfindings, recommendations are made with respect to further researchand readers' advisory strategies.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how instruction librarians‟ perceptions of web scale discovery services and their perceptions of the impact of web scale discovery on students‟ information literacy are reflected in their instruction practices in academic libraries. This study addresses how instruction librarians generally perceive WSDS and students‟ information literacy as well as how instruction librarians conduct their instruction sessions. The study‟s empirical data consists of the responses received through seven semi-structured interviews with ten instruction librarians at three separate universities in the Västra Götaland region. The study concludes that library instruction practices reflect many of the librarians‟ perceptions surrounding WSDS, most notably in the areas of source criticism and critical assessment of search results. The study also shows that the search strategies, techniques, and tools taught in instruction sessions are greatly influenced by librarians‟ perceptions of the usefulness of WSDS in student search processes. The librarians‟ responses demonstrate the importance of teaching students search strategies and techniques as well as helping them develop critical evaluation skills that will remain relevant as search technologies continue to evolve.

This paper is exploring Donna Haraways cyborg theory, in a perspective of Library- and Information Science. The investigation aims to better understand the occupation of librarians, and their position within knowledge creation through a digital and cyber technologically evolving society. The cyborg figuration, is making it possible to look at the librarian’s occupation in a postmodern-, posthuman-, and cyberfeminist perspective. The cyborg figure is a posthuman figure, a fusion between human and technology. Because of its interdisciplinary composition, the cyborg is cross-bordering and diversified in its nature. In a combination with Library- and Information Science the cyborg theory can produce new perspectives on our knowledge production.       The empirical investigation is made within the context of academic library research support, and Open Science. Throughout this development it becomes clear that the librarian is working in a coexistence between human and technology. This paper then demonstrates, that there is an analogy between the librarian and the cyborg figure, and especially in the context of the academic library. In this analogy, the cyborg librarian is constituted as a central phenomenon in a line of several developmental events – concerning the accessibility and dissemination of scientific knowledge creation, through the digital environment.       The cyborg librarian is then able to use the cyborg theory in this context, to cross over borders and create new perspectives. It can also create pedagogic tools for information instructions, that contribute to a deeper and more complex insight in knowledge production, as reality production. By evolving a critical, multimodal and reflective information literacy, and thereby also supporting the library institution in adopting to a postmodern society. Haraways cyborg feminism is also applying a perspective of social justice into the context of literacy instructions, whilst working in the same spirit as the democratic mission of the library institution.

The aim of this study is to examine the user education that librarians at university libraries have with students on the medical programme, to present how the user education is conducted, to identify which approach emerges and how the user education can be developed. The theory underlying this study is four approaches that Sundin (2005) identified when examining web-based user education: A source-oriented approach, a behavior-oriented approach, a process-oriented approach and a communication-oriented approach. By highlighting these approaches, it becomes clearer which focus the user education have with students on the medical programme. To get hold of this knowledge, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four librarians who work with user education with students on the medical programme. The collected material was analyzed using qualitative text analysis. The result shows that user education is organized in different ways. In common is that all librarians meet students in semester one and ten. Mostly the user education has the form of lectures but even practical exercises are included. All four approaches emerged in the user educations but the most prominent was the process-oriented approach. All librarians describe the students’ understanding as central in the user education which can be connected to a process-oriented approach. Students’ understanding is mentioned several times during the interview, and even when the librarians talk about what is most important for them to pass on in user education. All librarians have a great variety of suggestions on how user education can be developed in the future.

This study explores the different definitions of source criticism and credibility presented by different swedish university libraries in their web-based user education programmes. The purpose of the study is to explore what themes and definitions are linked to source criticism and credibility as defined by the university library. The two research questions that this study explores is: Firstly, What source criticism themes does the university library identify as important in the web-based user education programme? Secondly, What are the differences in the university libraries identified source criticism themes? The theory is based on a framework for credibility and this theory is used as a tool to develop an analytic tool to use with the research data. The method of analysis was a content analysis with the added analytic tool. The collection of data was done by visiting different university librararies webpages and navigating to the user education programme in source criticism. After the collection of the texts, the themes and describing terminology was counted within the text. The data was then compiled into the analytic tool. This study firstly identifies six themes as reoccuring between the analyzed university libraries, these themes are source reputation, information security or quality, maintenance of information and metadata, objectivity, the presentation of information and webpages reputation. Secondly this study identifies that there are differences in how themes are presented through the university library websites.

This thesis studies web based services for researchers, what kind of services are provided and how they are presented on the web, at five Swedish universities. In the digital age, the academic libraries have got to review how they reach researchers and what kind of services they can present to them. Since most of the resources used by researchers are available through the web, web based support services for the universities researchers can be a way to market the campus library as relevant. The study is conducted using a User Experience framework to explain the users way from the universities main home page to the services specifically aimed at the researchers. The services provided through the web page specifically for researchers are then analyzed with the help of a theory regarding primary and secondary services for researchers. The findings are that the services for researchers vary slightly, both in presentation and content. The web pages specifically aimed at researchers are similar but can be divided into three groups of different design and interface. Services that are provided on four of five of the universities library web pages are services regarding reference service programmes, information seeking, open access and publishing.

This thesis discusses the subject knowledge of university librarians, gained through education and/or experience in the field. The aim was to investigate the subject knowledge for university librarians, how the existence of subject knowledge or the lack thereof affects the librarians’ work and how the users’ view on the librarians' subject knowledge. I also wanted to investigate if there were differences between librarians at the interdisciplinary libraries and special librarians and whether there were differences between disciplines. This thesis is based on professional theory and librarian occupation as a profession or semi-profession. Additionally I explored what previous studies (mostly American) had said about the subject knowledge of university libraries, both general and divided into different disciplines. For this study I used online questionnaires to 274 librarians, library assistants and other staff of university libraries and 169 users. The questionnaire for the libraries was sent out to contacts at selected libraries, which in their turn asked the staff at these libraries to participate. For user survey I asked users in the libraries personally to participate and then sent out email to them. The responses were analysed mainly on the basis of computer generated results in the web tool and these results was published in the form of tables and diagrams in the study. The results of this survey was mainly that the portion of librarians with subject background was quite low, particularly in terms of subject specific degree, and that experience was relatively high. They are also differences between librarians on interdisciplinary libraries and librarians on subject specialized libraries, mainly that the proportion of completed degree in library science is higher for the subject librarians and the proportion who think that subject knowledge is important is lower in the same group. There are also differences between different disciplines, mainly in the terms of degree, both in library science and other topics, experience, and if the subject knowledge is important in the field. Based on these findings I could conclude that the librarian occupation is a semi-profession rather than a profession. The main conclusions was that librarians think that subject knowledge is important but that this is not seen to the same extent in their education or training although that it partially counterbalanced by experience. Its users find the librarians' subject knowledge partly is quite poor but that they nonetheless receive sufficient help. There are according to me possible methods to raise the subject knowledge of university librarians, mainly by trying to associate librarians with appropriate education to subject libraries and to create a specialisation on university librarianship.

The aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge of how libraryusers, library personnel and the relationship between them are expressed in “strategicdocuments” of university libraries in Sweden. As used in this study, strategic documentshave the purpose of pointing out focus and strategic planning for an organization. Sixstrategic documents are chosen. The main theory and method used is critical discourseanalysis signed Norman Fairclough. His three-part method: text analysis, discoursepractice and sociocultural practice, is used as a toolbox. The study also analysesstrategic documents as a genre.The analysis reveals that the image of the user presented in the strategic documents isindistinct, focusing on what the library should do but not for whom they should do it.The library personnel were, with one exception, not mentioned in terms of “librarians”but instead in terms of the more impersonal and less specific “staff” or “co-workers”.This suggests that the library personnel are exchangeable and change is what definesboth the occupation and the library. Strategies of professionalization were protrudingand technology was the most significant motivator for the organization.The relationship between the library users and the library personnel is not as evident inthe material as could be expected; it is foremost expressed as existing between theuniversity and the library. We see this as problematic as the relationship between thelibrary personnel and the library users is the key to the legitimization of universitylibraries. The study reveals three main discourses; the discourse of effectiveness, thetechnical discourse and the discourse of change and renewal, which together point outfuture directions for university libraries in Sweden. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The background to this thesis is the impact of information technology on libraries and librarywork. If information technology causes changes in the tasks and work of libraries, thenlibrary organisations should also change. It is important to engage and inform the staff if suchchanges are to succeed. This thesis investigates the notions about library tasks and librarywork among eight "middle-managers" at Linkopings universitetsbibliotek.The investigation is based on interviews and then analysed with Soft Systems Methodology(SSM). By identifying the "Weltanschauung" of the staff, the thesis tries to create logicallydesirable and culturally feasible models of systems relevant to the situation at Linkopingsuniversitetsbibliotek. Based on the interviews, this thesis proposes two such models.The first model aims to make the library users competent to seek, find and evaluate their owninformation. The aim of the second model is to make library work more efficient by gettingthe staff to see themselves as parts of a process instead of isolated functions.