Diss. Åbo : Åbo Akademi, 2005.

This bachelor thesis examines research support services at three SwedishUniversity Libraries. Three methods are used, aiming at capturingdifferent aspects of the support services. The quantitative methods are textanalysis (word count) based on the libraries annual reports and aquestionnaire aiming at mapping the services. In addition, a qualitativecontent analysis is performed, based on semi structured interviews withthree informants, one at each of the university libraries. The results showthat the libraries have developed support services for all stages in aresearch process, however differently. The three libraries seem to havesome distinctive features in their research support services that areconsistent with each university's profile. Based on the perspective ofJoacim Hansson's theory about library discourse versus library practice,and his and Krister Johannesson's dimensions proactive versus reactive,the thesis also discusses how these features are expressed by theinformants and how the different views influence and are influenced bythe typical features of the university and the library research supportservices.

This bachelor thesis in Library and Information science (LIS) aims to examine faculty perceptions of what constitutes and legitimizes an academic library. Academic libraries have experienced immense changes in the last several decades, mainly due to techno­logical advances such as electronic resources, but also the increase in students, teachers and researchers. Many libraries are trying to to provide new services and expertise to remain indispensable to users, which contributes to a fragmented image of academic libraries. This study addressed the following research questions: What are teachers’ and researchers’ expectations of an academic library? How do teachers and researchers think about access and resources? What are teachers’ and researchers’ perceptions of future academic libraries? The study was conducted using a qualitative approach where eight faculty members with experience of being both a teacher and a researcher were interviewed at the Faculty of Health and Society at Malmö University. The data was analyzed using an analytical framework of legitimacy and documentality deriving from Professor Joacim Hansson (2015), but adapted to fit the study. The analytical framework mainly contributed in clarifying which library resources and services can be considered either essential or mostly facilitating. The findings show that faculty perceives the academic library as crucial for their work, especially for giving access to printed or electronic literature, guiding users in how to find and value relevant information, assisting in publishing matters and in education. However, faculty also considers resources and supportive services intrinsically non-essential to teaching and research as relatively important, and truly values the personal contact with the librarians. The results indicate that academic libraries will persist in the foreseeable future, though an informed strategy is necessary.

This thesis deals with the question of why the Swedish Academy Dictionary has its own Library when, for almost a hundred years, it has been located at the University Library of Lund. Looking at the library functions: librarian, users, room and books and their external factors: economy, internal actors, external actors and the development of the Swedish Academy Dictionary helped to shed light upon which relations between these factors have been important in the development of the library. The results show that there has not been a conscious plan behind the Library. A large number of the books in the Library was given by those who have worked at the Dictionary and also by their friends and collegues. Another part was given by the Swedish Academy and was partly gathered when the project was still in Stockholm. Being so close to the books belonging to Lunds University Library has been a factor in not buying so many needed books, like expensive lexica. When the Dictionary moved from Lunds University Library a development into what can be described as a Special Library in Lexicology took place. One factor that was not considered but has proven to be important is the relation between the editors and other people in the society of Lund, and the desire to spread one's name.

This study focuses on the encounter between the academic librarian and the academic library user with a specific need for information. The aim of the study is to examine the process of mediation of information and to uncover any inherent problems or systemic inertia that may occur within that process. Special attention has been given to information-seeking behaviour in the digital age and the possibility of viewing information literacy as a meta-literacy. The difference between the surface web and the academic invis- ible web is also investigated. Empirical data was collected by the use of ethnographic fieldwork at the Karolin- ska Institutet University Library over a period of five weeks. The data is analysed using actor-network theory as a point of departure. Actors, networks, mediators and intermediaries involved in the process of mediation of information are identified and defined. By tracing techno-economic and socio-technic networks the actors’ in- centives are uncovered, as well as the various transactions in which they are engaged. The study sheds light upon a significant difference in participatory motivation between the face-to-face reference work and the information literacy course incorporated within curricula. The use of actor-network theory enables information to be seen as an actor among other actors and during the analysis of the empirical data the topic of the nature of information is discussed using the model of the DIKW-hierarchy. A shift in the academic library towards a hybrid institution engaged in both the dispersion of information and the production of information is uncovered and the possible consequences of this shift are also discussed. The further development of the academic librarian’s educational role might be a viable option in the develop- ment of information literacy education in higher education.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate if the library can be a real partner for researchers in managing and dealing with their research information. In this study, six researchers have been interviewed about their problems with information management. This study uses the method Critical Incident Technique for the interviews with the researchers. This method focuses mainly on problems and what happens around those problems. The interview results have been prepared with automatic clustering and analysed with the help of a theoretical model from Minnesota University Library. This is a model of the scholarly research process described in four overlapping areas: 1) Discover, 2) Gather, 3) Create and 4) Share. The studies result gives that there seems to be no problem with accessing full text information, the problem is rather narrowing down the search to get enough time to read it all. The researchers do not find any search skills in the library that match their own search skills. On the question if the library works well as a partner, the answer in this study is no. The researchers do not see the library as a partner in working with research information, but only as a supplier of documents. When they need assistance, they turn to colleagues, students, email, and as a last resort, the library.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how structural changes are depicted as well as formally brought about in the documents of rule and regulation of Uppsala University and Uppsala University Library the years 1999−2013. Beside the documents of rule and regulation, also documents that is commenting on (or in other ways relates to) these are investigated. The study is based both in organizational theory and modern rhetorical theory. The results show that the University to a certain extent gained an increased possibility to micromanage the library’s working routines during the time span covered and the study traces the consequences this had on the library organization and reactions it evoked among the leaders and representatives of the library staff This raised a debate between representatives from the University library and its mother organization, the University, regarding at which level in the whole organization decisions regarding the library’s forms of funding and everyday praxis. In addition also the development at the University library at Lund University is more briefly surveyed, as a complementing picture. The thesis is a two years master’s thesis written at the Department of Archive, Library and Museum Studies at Uppsala University.

This master thesis aims to critically analyze the state of digital libraries in Swedish academic libraries. With the branching theory of sense-making and the methodology of DELOS and IFLA/UNESCOs digital library manifestos, this thesis hopes to bring to light how far Swedish academic libraries have progressed. By accumulating quantitative data encompassing all digital academic libraries in Sweden, and qualitative data from a select few, conclusions regarding the aforementioned are drawn. Focusing on content analysis, this thesis analyzed the different components that can be said to constitute the digital library and compared them to the different manifestos that dictate what a digital library can be said to consist of. By employing the elusive sense-making theory as a general modus of mind, one can begin to understand thought-making processes behind the tapping of digital library resources. Results from this thesis found that some functions and components are present within all academic libraries in Sweden, but that the digital library primarily tends to focus on resource acquisition and not so much on resource presentation. User environments are not prioritized. Different aspects are presented in regards to mobile optimization, social media, information organization, information design etc. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies. / Den här masteruppsatsen syftar till att undersöka digitala bibliotek och digitala miljöer på svenska högskole- och universitetsbibliotek. Med sense-making som huvudsaklig teoretiskt ramverk och DELOS och IFLA/UNESCOs olika manifest gällande digitala bibliotek hoppas uppsatsen visa hur långt svenska bibliotek har kommit i relation till det digitala. Via samlandet av kvantitativ data från alla svenska akademiska bibliotek, och kvalitativ data från ett fåtal utvalda, kommer uppsatsen till diverse slutsatser. Med fokus på innehåll och funktion så undersöker uppsatsen vilka komponenter som kan sägas utgöra det digitala biblioteket i jämförelse med manifesten och deras ideala digitala bibliotek. Med hjälp av sense-making kan man få en förståelse för tankessättet och hur användare angriper de digitala resurserna. Resultaten från uppsatsen visade att det finns en viss grad av framsteg och utveckling som alla bibliotek har nått, men att den digitala satsningen oftast endast inbegriper samlandet av resurser och uppbyggandet av databaser snarare än presentation och design. Miljöer som gör att användarna frodas prioriteras ofta bort. Olika aspekter presenteras i relation till detta såsom mobil-optimering, sociala medier, informationsorganisation, informationsdesign osv. Det här är en tvåårig masteruppsats inom Arkiv, Bibliotek och museum.

The academic field of political science in Europe is studied in this thesis which examines the application of bibliometrics for domain analysis. It takes its point of departure in the domain analytic approach outlined by Birger Hjørland and Hanne Albrechtsen, which claims the study of domains as central for information specialists to be able to identify information needs in their fields of practice. Three features of the domain were studied by the use of bibliometric methods. Data was extracted from the Web of Science. Impact Factor was used to select 50 journals from each of the years 1999, 2004 and 2009. Only items published by authors with European addresses were included. Co-word analysis was used to study topics within the discipline and several kinds of citation analyses were conducted to examine citation patterns of the domain. Lastly core journals, authors and works were identified by the use of citation analysis and co-citation maps were drawn for the analyses.Several subfields within the domain, as well as some differences in citation patterns of the subfields, were possible to distinguish. The domain showed to be multifaceted, yet specific European research areas were identified. Some significant changes of the citation patterns were apparent between 1999 and 2009. In 2009 there were more references per article, journal articles were cited to a higher degree, relatively older publications were cited to a greater extent and the most cited journals received a larger share of the total amount of citations.The existence of a specific European domain within political science is discussed as well as the diverse characteristics of the subfields and their implications for the bibliometric methods. Finally suggestions are presented of how bibliometrics can be used for domain analysis within library and information science as well as by information service institutions.This paper is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science. / Det akademiska statsvetenskapliga fältet i Europa studeras i denna uppsats, vilken utforskar bibliometrins tillämpbarhet inom domänanalysen. Den tar sin utgångspunkt i det domänanalytiska perspektivet formulerat av Birger Hjørland och Hanne Albrechtsen, vilket hävdar studier av domäner som centrala för att informationsspecialister ska kunna identifiera informationsbehov inom sina verksamheter. Tre aspekter av domänen studerades med bibliometriska metoder, data hämtades från Web of Science. Impact Factor användes för att välja ut 50 tidskrifter för vardera av åren 1999, 2004 och 2009. Endast artiklar publicerade av författare med Europeiska adresser inkluderades. Co-word-analys användes för att studera disciplinens ämnesområden, flera olika citeringsanalyser genomfördes för att utforska citeringsmönster inom domänen och slutligen identifierades centrala tidskrifter, författare och verk genom citeringsanalys och co-citerings-kartor skapades för analyserna. Flera delfält inom domänen kunde urskiljas, samt några skillnader mellan delfältens citeringsmönster. Domänen visade sig vara multifacetterad, men specifikt europeiska forskningsområden kunde identifieras. Några betydande förändringar av citeringsmönstren var märkbara mellan åren 1999 och 2009. Artiklarna från 2009 innehöll fler referenser per artikel, tidskriftsartiklar citerades i högre grad, relativt äldre publikationer citerades i större utsträckning och de mest citerade tidskrifterna tog emot en större andel av citeringarna. Existensen av en specifik europeisk domän inom statsvetenskapen diskuteras samt hur de bibliometriska metoderna påverkas av skillnader mellan delfälten. Slutligen presenteras förslag på hur bibliometrin kan användas för domänanalys inom biblioteks- och informationsvetenskapen samt av institutioner tillhandahållande informationstjänster.