The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of how dyslexic adults experience the library, their meeting with a librarian and how they feel they are being helped with finding literature. To answer the purpose of the study I have conducted six semi-structured interviews with dyslexic adults.. Two theoretical models were used as an analytical tool in this study. One was Michael Buckland's aspects of access to information. The other is four aspects that explains the significance of personal encounter at the library. The findings in this study show that the kind of reception dyslexic library users have met in the past, becomes important for how they perceive the library today. There are also difficulties that the dyslexic library users encounter in the library. One example of this is that the library catalogue requires correct spelling. As a result many users avoid using the library catalogue and find other ways to access the literature they are looking for. A further conclusion in this study is the importance of a personal assistance from a librarian. A librarian can often help to overcome the barriers that make it difficult for dyslexic library users to find literature. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The fundamental question in this master thesis deals with the role of public libraries. The Helsinki Central Library (HCL) in Finland is used as a study object in this case study that aims to examine the meanings that local politicians link to the HCL in particular and to public libraries in general. The empirical material of the study consists of politicians' opinions stated at the Helsinki City council’s meeting in January 2015. Discourse analysis based on the theories of Michel Foucault is used as the methodological and theoretical framework in the study. As a result four discourses defining the HCL were identified: the symbolic, place, development and opposition discourse. The three first discourses construct a picture of the library as carrier of the Finnish society and identity, a meeting place as well as a developer of the Helsinki city center, Helsinki library network and the library institution in general. On the contrary, the opposition discourse sees the role of public libraries in a more traditional way questioning the need of HCL. The attitudes towards public libraries and their destined future are linked. The fact that the library according to the dominant discourses identified in this study could both maintain its ground, develop and even actively enhance change in the library sector suggests the legitimacy of HCL as well as a more multidimensional role for public libraries in general.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine the notion of the intern in relation to literature and reading, and what roll the prison library has had, through a discourse analysis of the library journal Biblioteksbladet from 1963 to 2018. The following research questions were addressed: What characterizes the discourses about the intern in relation to reading and the prison library? Which subject positions emerges regarding the intern in relation to reading and the prison library? What roll has the prison library had in creating the image of the reading prisoner? How has the discourses evolved in relation to reading and the prison library between 1963 and 2018? 41 articles were examined in which two discourses were found named as “Someone else’s choice” and “The intern’s choice”. Three subject positions were found; “The incompetent prisoner”, “The competent prisoner” and “The criminal prisoner with psychological difficulties”. The library’s roll has been to promote books, in the first discourse books that were perceived as good and in the second discourse books that the interns chose themselves. The library also had a part in creating and upholding the image of the intern as a criminal with psychological difficulties. The conclusion of this study is that discussions regarding the good literature have been and still are present although the attitudes towards this literature differs. The attitudes towards censorship also differs and has differed throughout history although someone else has always had a part in deciding what the intern should read. When an intern chose literature that did not confirm any prejudice that might have occurred in society, it was still considered to be a choice that originated from the identity of the intern as a criminal or someone with psychological difficulties.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the attitude towardscomics among librarians as well as their personal image ofthe overall attitude towards comics among librarians and themanner in which the attitude of the librarians affects how thecomics are treated in the library.I have performed this study with a qualitative approach andhave interviewed a total of five librarians working in twodifferent libraries.I have founded the theoretical base for my research in anumber of historical attitudes towards comics and thencompared these attitudes towards the answers given in theinterviews as well as prior research found in three theseswritten by Magnus Johansson, Sarah Johansson and KarinEsaiasson.The results of the study is that traces of most of thehistorical attitudes can be found among all of the interviewedlibrarians but that none of them are harboring any negativeattitudes towards comics themselves. On the other hand thestudy does imply that the image of the librarian who onlythinks that comics are meant for children is still very muchalive in the collective subconscious of the librarians.The study also shows that while librarians of today tend tohave a neutral outlook in comics the historically subpartreatment of comic in the libraries and the subsequent lack ofacademic support on the subject have made it necessary forthe librarian in charge of the comic-section to have apersonal interest/liking for comics to be able to do a goodjob. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The public library´s overall purpose and legitimacy is analways relevant subject for discussion in Library andInformation Science and in public debate on libraries.Libraries are a part of a bigger societal context and are thusinevitably influenced by societal changes. In this thesis wehave studied different roles and functions of the publiclibrary, as seen from documents published by one specificpublic library in Malmö - Garaget. As basis we have usedan analysis model of the library in the knowledge andexperience society made by Jochumsen, HvenegaaardRasmussen och Skot-Hansen (2010). Our purpose has beento examine which ideas and notions on the functions of thepublic library that can be found in Garaget’s documents andin the model – and to discuss them from a discoursive pointof view. In our understanding of discourse and powerstructures within the discourse we were influenced byFoucault. We found that what is said in Garaget’sdocuments, in many ways, can be considered coherent withthe ideas expressed in Jochumsen et al:s model. Among themore central themes we found examples of how the publiclibrary’s functions are becoming broader, and also thatlibrary users are allowed (and expected) to play anincreasingly central part in defining the actitivites of thelibrary. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Little attention has been paid in the literature to libraryassistants in Swedish public libraries. In this bachelor thesis,the professional role, work duties, career prospects and statusof library assistants are examined at two public libraries.Because of a scarcity of published information on thedevelopment of this profession in Swedish public libraries,retired library assistants, as well as currently employedlibrary assistants, librarians and a library head wereinterviewed.Since the ‘80s, work duties of library assistants havechanged, with a reduction in some of the more manualaspects of library work, the development of new duties and,overall, an increasing similarity in the duties performed bylibrary assistants and librarians.Additionally, the public perception of library assistants as acategory distinct from librarians was investigated bydistributing questionnaires to library patrons. Contrary toexpectations prompted by statements in the literature, asubstantial portion of visitors was found to be aware of thetwo separate categories.Library assistants at Swedish libraries have no careerprospects, unless they undertake studies in their own freetime and at their own cost, and obtain a librarian degree. Adifference between the situation of library assistants inSweden and corresponding professional categories in a fewother countries is that, at present and for several years, noformal education for library assistants has been available inSweden. Plans for a reintroduction of such education wereindefinitely shelved in 2004, principally because of theopposition of librarians’ professional associations and tradeunions. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study, describe andimprove the understanding of voluntary driven libraries. How doesthe library staff view their role? How is the library operationworking in respect of economy, organization structure and systemsof rules? Research methods I used were semistructured interviewsand document research.The theoretical framework was based on Joacim Hansson´sdiscussion about libraries in a local community, Henning Bang´sdiscussion about organization culture and the Swedishgovernment´s non- profit advisory group`s discussion aboutvoluntary work.The results of this study shows that the library staff are enthusiastsmotivated by a wish to spread literature to people who find itdifficult to visit municipal libraries. Other motives for theirvoluntary work is the opportunity for being a part of a socialcommunity, to be surrounded by books and to activate body andsenses. The results of this study also shows that the voluntarylibrary system differ from the traditional, municipal library systemconcerning economy, organization structure and set of rules. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the situation for ebooksin Swedish public libraries. The background is anincreasing lending of e-books in public libraries, with anacquisition model formed when e-books were more of anexperiment in a few libraries. The debate has escalated in therecent years and in this thesis I aim to investigate thelibraries’ experience with e-books and the current pricemodel. The empirical material comes from interviews witheight head of public libraries in the Västra Götaland region.As theoretical background, I have used Michael Buckland’sfour roles of collections and price models from Lee andBoyle.My results show ambivalence with the price model. Thereare worries that the cost will escalate out of control, but atthe same time my respondents do not want to lose thebenefits of a digital file by limiting the use of it to f e oneuser at a time. At the moment my respondent are not beingactive, but are instead waiting for a better solution to come,perhaps from the Royal Library. Looking at the roles ofcollection regarding e-books, the effect is disputable andpoints towards centralization, mostly because of theindividual libraries’ lack of independence and control overthe e-books. I also suggest that we look at e-books fromanother point of view: that we could benefit from regardingthem more as databases than books in our collections. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this essay is to examine what happens with library e-resources after implementing the discovery tool Summon. Summon provides a Google-like experience and uses multiple facet options when users need to narrow their discovery. Observations of change in the libraries e-resources with regards to database searches, click-throughs in linkresolvers and full text downloads are examined through looking at earlier reports and statistics from libraries in America and England. This provides a way to compare with Chalmers University of Technology’s Library. This essay presents results that suggest that usage drop in database searches while full text downloads and click-throughs increase when Summon is implemented. Also discussed in the essay is the importance for libraries to continuous evaluate the use of their resources to keep up with their users needs and demands. / Program: Bibliotekarie

A trend since the early 90’s has been that some public libraries offer a special shelf containing environmental information to the community, but it seems as though the subject has been overlooked by the literature and the science community. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study how three independent public libraries work with environmental information that is made available to the community. The following questions were addressed: 1) Which arguments can be found as to why the libraries offer this activity? 2) How does the environmental work at the public libraries look and what does it contain of? 3) Are there any similarities or differences in this work between the three libraries?To answer these questions interviews with librarians were carried out; observations were made to complement the interviews. Kathryn Miller’s theory “the libraries green role” (2010) was used to identify which roles the libraries played in the local community. Miller suggests that there are two possible roles that the library can play in order to contribute to the greening of the community: that of an environmental leader and/or environmental educator. The results showed that the libraries environmental work differed to some extent but was largely similar. The arguments behind the activity were found to be democracy and education. The libraries were in larger extent identified to act as an environmental educator than an environmental leader. / Program: Bibliotekarie