During the last years the scientific communication has undergone a series of changes. As a result new and different forms of publication and distribution of research has seen the light of day, one of these is open access. Open access as a concept was introduced in the beginning of the 21 ́st century. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine what ideas of open access are present in the academic libraries of Sweden. Furthermore we will look at what different roles librarians, researches and research funders are given. The theory and method chosen for this essay is based upon the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough, with a focus on linguistic aspects of texts as well as the surrounding context, which the texts both influence and are influenced by. By applying linguistic tools two discourses where distinguished on a superior level, the democracy discourse and the market discourse. Between these two discourses there is a battle for hegemony. Within the two discourses there are also several internal discourses present. The internal discourses are not necessarily at odds with each other, they are rather seen as different aspects that together construct their superior discourses.

This two years master´s thesis examines how books and literature can strengthen the contact between imprisoned fathers and their children, and the connection between the treatment of offenders and education in Sweden. The methods used are interviews and textual analysis. The theoretical starting points are influenced by Bernt Gustavssons works concerning the concept of education (the Swedish term “bildning”) and Foucaults thoughts on the subject of power and its relation to knowledge and resistance. Through history many attempts have been made to “cure” those who commit criminal acts by educating them, at first to enable them to get employed after serving their sentence, the education thus being for the greater good of the society in general, but since the 1940’s the aim has shifted towards education for the individuals own personal development and readjustment to society. The findings indicate that the service provided to prisons by public libraries play an important role for the inmates, as a source of books for amusement and diversion as well as providing the means for education. This thesis examines four reading programmes in prison, in order to establish their place in the tradition of education within the Swedish penal system. In the prison reading programs the fathers choose a children’s storybook and either reads it during the child’s visits or make a recording on DVD or CD to send to their child on the outside. The Swedish example, Godnattsagor inifrån, is influenced by its English and American precursors in its attempt to create or strengthen the bonds between fathers and children through the reading experience. Many fathers taking part in the study circle organized by Malmö public library claim the experience has taught them not only to dare read aloud to their children, but also to appreciate literature for themselves. My conclusion is that the reading programmes have effects beyond the individual inmate, as it to a certain extent can be a bond to keep a broken family together and as such actually prevent the father from committing further crime. The library service in prison is also greatly needed and appreciated by the incarcerated fathers.

The purpose of this study is to examine if digital public libraries are serendipitous environments. Serendipity in this instance is defined as finding something unexpected and valuable, while searching for something else. A survey was conducted at two Swedish digital public libraries, where the patrons were asked to fill in a questionnaire online. The questions were based on the work on serendipitous digital environments by Lori McCay-Peet, as well as considerations of human factors that could possibly influence serendipity. The result indicate that a majority of patrons experience serendipity at the digital library, although it’s still more common to do so at the physical library or on other web sites. The result also confirms the importance of taking human factors into account when studying serendipity. The patrons who said they didn’t experience serendipity at the physical library or on other web sites, didn’t experience it at the digital library either – or at least only partially. However, the patrons who didn’t experience serendipity at the digital library still did so in other environments. A digital library is an environment with many possibilities for serendipitous encounters and discoveries, but what is missing is a better understanding of how serendipity can actually help in finding information. By teaching patrons to actively seek out serendipity, and by offering a serendipitous digital environment in which to do so, the library can further information literacy in our society.

Sävar bibliotek ska införa meröppet, och denna studie har undersökt hur man bör gå tillväga. Intervjuer utfördes via telefon och e-mail till andra meröppna bibliotek, och en fokusgrupp utfördes med besökare och personal vid Sävar bibliotek. Vi undersökte även relevant litteratur för att hitta hur själva miljön i biblioteket ska se ut. Vi kom fram till att det är viktigt att information om förändringarna kommer ut till besökarna. Det är också viktigt att biblioteket ska vara en social miljö, så det är viktigt att arrangera det så att det uppmuntrar till social interaktion. / Sävar library will introduce self-service (“more-open”) and in this study we have researched how to carry it out. Interviews were performed through telephone and e-mail to other more-open libraries and a focus group was performed with visitors and personnel at Sävar library. We also researched relevant literature in order to find how the environment in the library should look like. We found that it is important that information about the changes reaches the visitors. It is also important that the library will continue to be a social environment, so it is important to arrange it so that it encourages social interaction.

This thesis examines the role of violence and harassment towards staff in Swedish public libraries as well as the preventative measures used by the libraries. A link to a web survey was distributed to 60 libraries and answered by 38 respondents. The study included regular public libraries and public libraries integrated with school libraries. The survey regarded their situation in 2012. Three questions were used as a starting point:- What sort of problems exist in Swedish public libraries concerning violence and harassment towards library staff?- How do Swedish public libraries seek to prevent violence and harassment towards their staff and how could this preventative work be further evolved?- Is there a difference between the two types of libraries with reference to the problems with workplace violence and the preventative measures taken?The answers of the survey were structured and analyzed by using different theories and approaches to crime prevention and thereafter compared with the outcomes of another study on crime in a library setting. The results of the study showed that although the problems with violence and harassment were limited, quite a wide range of preventative measures were already in use. The integrated libraries in the study were less affected by these problems and used fewer security measures than the regular public ones.

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 library is a place to meet other individuals and exchange information. This study is connected to the exchange of information between individuals and groups from varying cultures and backgrounds in an intercultural setting – the library. The library have a set of laws and guidelines they should follow which lead to the question of whether they do or not?  Furthermore, in unison with the question raised above, this study was conducted to research the connections, differences and diversities within and between discourses connected to the library. In order to possess a greater knowledge regarding laws and guidelines a library manifest and the Swedish library law was examined. Additionally, two discourses were constructed after thorough and meticulous reading, one of theory, containing laws and guidelines while the other discourse was of practical work derived from the statements of librarians through interviews. The analysis was split into two parts and done with critical discourse analysis, derived from Fairclough, and rational choice-theory as tools. During the first analysis three different themes were identified and brought forward to be used as the basis. The results from the first analysis formed two other prominent themes used in the second analysis. After the analysis was conducted and the material thoroughly inspected and interpreted the study arrived at its final conclusions. The result showed, among other things, a great lack of implementation between the two discourses and specifically so in the implementation of guidelines from the theoretical discourse in the practical discourse.

Green libraries are a relatively small but expanding part of the library world, and usually indicates a library that includes ecological sustainability in their inner or outer practices. These libraries make information about the environment available to the community. At the time of this study, the scientific material on Green Libraries is very practically oriented and often focused on what the library can do for its community, with no literature on the users’ perspective. The purpose of this bachelor's thesis was, thus, to study the users’ awareness and use of the green library services. The following questions were addressed: How have users become aware of the ecologically sustainable services in the library? How do library users use the provided ecologically sustainable services? Interviews and complementary observations were carried out to answer these questions, and a deductive thematic analysis was conducted upon the collected material. Wilbur Schramm's (1973) five causes of selective exposure were applied to identify how the green services reach the library users. The results showed that the green services were often noted in passing while the user was otherwise engaged in looking for information or services closer to their interests. Only one out of twenty individuals had taken part of the information provided by flipping through the provided books. The users sought information about the environment through other sources. However the users are positive to the fact that the library offers these services as the library is a place of information within the local community.

The purpose of this bachelor´s thesis is to examine how municipal libraries relate to national guidelines pertaining to the digitization of cultural heritage. Though these guidelines presently do not pertain to municipal libraries, we suspect that similar guiding principles will eventually be developed for them in the future as the digitalization of society continues. Our study aims to see to what extent municipal libraries with local heritage collections would be able to adhere to such guidelines should they be implemented. We intend to find this out by examining how the libraries in our study reason around the possibilities and obstacles of digitization, as well as how their reasoning differs from the national guidelines. The material for this study was collected by conducting five qualitative interviews with the librarians primarily responsible for the local heritage collections at five different libraries. The results were then analyzed by using thematic text analysis. The themes used were prominent areas of concern expressed in previous research pertaining to cultural heritage digitization. The four themes are comprised of technical uniformity, economy, copyright and awareness. In addition to thematic text analysis, the results were also examined within the theoretical framework of new institutionalism in order to see how the formal structures of the libraries function, and how they are affected by their surroundings in light of the digitalization of society. The results show that the libraries examined find that the main possibility of digitization is access, and that the biggest obstacle is financial. In general, we can conclude that the municipal libraries in our study would not adequately measure up to the national guidelines if they were to be implemented at the municipal level at this time.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine how library managers have handled situations involving controversial lectures at their libraries. Lately, controversial lectures have upset public opinion and caused critical writing in local newspapers. Questions posed are: How do library managers handle controversial lectures, concerning freedom of speech, library directives and respect for human rights? The theoretical starting-point is Joacim Hansson’s definition of two ideological views on libraries, one educational and one liberal, and also an article about thoughts in post-modernism and modernism by Emily Knox. I have used the theoretical framework to define two ideological standpoints; the perspective of freedom and the perspective of responsibility, to illustrate the views of the informants. Semistructured interviews with library managers were conducted, and the results show that the informants more often expressed views close the perspective of freedom, than views close to the perspective of responsibility. The conclusion is that there is no complete consensus on how to interpret and follow the many directives being applicable to Swedish libraries. Public opinion and the risk of receiving criticism seem to have an important influence on decisions concerning controversial lectures. However, the study shows that both the perspective of freedom and the perspective of responsibility, in dealing with controversial speech, can be motivated by library managers in terms of acting in line with democratic values and library directives.