The aim of this thesis is threefold. Firstly it will examine what kind of support in academic writing is offered outside classes in higher education in Sweden. Secondly it will investigate what the most valued skills for the personnel working with providing this support are considered to be. Lastly the role of the academic library in connection to these writing support centers will be explored.  The study is conducted through a qualitative survey study with quantitative elements sent to Swedish universities. An inductive approach is taken to the analysis of the data.  The result show, among other things, that all of the answering universities offer this type of academic writing support. It is primarily done through individual support sessions and workshops but a range of other options are often available as well. It is clear that having a pedagogical approach and good language skills are highly valued in a support personnel´s skillset by the respondents. Furthermore the academic libraries were found to take a large part in the academic writing support. They contributed primarily through use of their premises although a number of them also contributed personnel, as well as was in charge of overseeing the writing support services.

This thesis concerns the subject of videos in libraries, with a special focus on university libraries. The problem statement concerns that videos as a library resource have been far less studied than books. Also, videos in university libraries have been less studied than in public libraries. There is also a need for further investigation of how libraries define the concept of quality, and how this issue affects their acquisition decisions. The purpose of the thesis s to investigate how university libraries prioritize in their selection of videos. Three research questions are posed. The first question relates to aspects of quality. The second question concerns the aspects of education and entertainment. The third question concerns the view of physical and digital formats of videos. The main source of theory is Johannsen (1996), who discusses five certain views of quality. The main method used is semi-structured interviews, conducted at two Swedish universities: Lund University and Malmö University. The selected libraries all had (mostly physical) videos in their collections, according to the universities’ library catalogues. The results show that various factors, both subjective and objective, affect university libraries’ selection of videos. Overall, it seems clear that no single rule or definition of quality is enough. One main conclusion is that the quality of a video never can be judged entirely objectively. Libraries will have to make a judgement call, or leave this judgment at least partly to their users.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken plats engelsk skönlitteratur har i årskurs 4–6 i svenska engelskklassrum. Metoden jag har använt mig av är semistrukturerade intervjuer. För att få en tydlig bild har jag intervjuat både lärare och bibliotekarier för att se hur de arbetar för att främja elevers intresse i läsning. Studiens resultat visar att lärarna inte har rätt kunskaper och tillgång till att använda engelsk litteratur i sin undervisning. Det visar även på att bibliotekarierna gärna bidrar med sin expertis men att ett samarbete mellan skola och kommunala bibliotek saknas.

This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on library staffs work with writing activities in Västerbotten and Västernorrland before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. It also focuses on the future of writing activities at the library and whether or not the pandemic will affect them long term. The data in this study is based on five interviews with different library staff that took place in December 2021, these interviews were then coded and analysed using thematic analysis. The conclusion is that not much has changed from the time before the pandemic to now, December 2021. The only difference is that some of the libraries closed down for a short time in December 2020 and when they opened up again the writing activities were either moved online or postponed until they could be held in person again. Most of the libraries had at least one writing activity during or after the pandemic, during the pandemic it was mostly digital activities and after the pandemic it was a mix of both digital and physical activities.When it comes to the future of writing activities at the libraries it is still uncertain. Some of the participants in the study are going to focus on other activities besides writing activities, others are planning to start new activities in the future, and some are going to continue with the ones they started after society opened up again in 2021.

Library management systems (LMS) are a big part of the workday for most librarians. Everything from acquisitions, managing e-resources and circulation work is done through these kinds of systems. Umeå university library implemented a new LMS called Alma back in 2018. They moved from a local system to a more complex and advanced cloud-based system. This study has examined how the system has been received through the lens of the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). A survey containing 23 Likert items were answered by librarians at Umeå university’s libraries. The items were grouped under four overhead categories collected from UTAUT: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Afterwards an analysis was made that examined whether age, gender, experience with the system and most used task in Alma had any influence over certain categories. The study shows that age and gender did not influence performance expectancy, but the most common task did with circulation work as an outlier with more negative scoring. Gender did not influence effort expectancy either, but age did where younger people tended to score lower and the age group 42–49 handing out higher scores. The most used task also influenced this factor but experience with the system did not influence the factor in a major way. Facilitating conditions was influenced by age where the age group in the middle once again scored much higher than the youngest group. Experience with Alma also influenced this factor in the sense that less experienced workers scored lower. Most used task in Alma followed the same pattern as the other factors with circulation tasks scoring lower and administration tasks scoring higher. Social influence did not pass the Cronbach’s alpha that was set at 0.7 and showed overall internal low correlation, therefore it was not included in the analysis.

This thesis is about medical libraries that, foremost, serve the healthcare personnel in their evidence-based practices. The visibility aspect of these types of libraries is explored, both through a librarian’s and a user’s perspective. A theory of invisible information work is applied to understand why and how visibility affects the libraries and the librarians’ work. The visibility is also explored through a user perspective, where theories of user barriers are applied to a group of users with remote access to the medical library. The data is derived from semi-structured interviews with medical librarians, clinical librarians, and a group of healthcare personnel, and analyzed thematically through the theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, the medical library as a place is explored and discussed, which deepens the analysis and understanding of the medical libraries’ impact on the healthcare personnel and their evidence-based practices, as well as the visibility and role of the medical library. The conclusion is that the library and its services, to a large extent, are invisible to the user group, and several barriers to the users’ library access and use are detected and exemplified in the thesis. Another conclusion is that medical librarians have a range of strategies to counter the invisibility, but factors such as resources and being part of a healthcare organization affect the possibility of implementing these strategies.

Bibliotekslagens ändamålsparagraf anger att bibliotek i det allmänna väsendet ska arbeta med att främja intresset för bildning. Det gäller således alla typ av offentligt finansierade bibliotek och uppdraget tar ingen hänsyn till resurser eller ekonomiska faktorer. Såväl bokbussar som biblioteksverksamhet på landsbygden kan ha begränsade resurser i förhållande till större städer och tätorter. Lagen har inte heller någon tydlig beskrivning av hur arbetet med att främja intresset för bildning ska gå till. Denna uppsats ämnar därför att undersöka hur personal på bokbussar på landsbygden ser på begreppet bildning, bokbussens betydelse på landsbygden samt hur de arbetar med bildning i den dagliga verksamheten. Den insamlade empirin består av samtalsintervjuer med sju bokbussmedarbetare. Uppsatsen har ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv där bokbusspersonalens berättelser och dagliga arbete används för att synliggöra och fördjupa förståelsen för och arbetet med bildning. Som teoretiskt verktyg för att belysa skillnader och utmaningar med att arbeta på en bokbuss på landsbygden används Stein Rokkan och Derek Urwins teori om centrum och periferi. Studiens resultat visar att personalen på bokbussar på landsbygden arbetar med bildning genom att erbjuda låntagarna tillgång till ett brett utbud litteratur men även genom programverksamhet och det sociala mötet. Bokbussens funktion på landsbygden beskrivs som viktig, framförallt som en social mötesplats men även som en brygga för att överbygga den isolering som landsbygdens periferi kan uppleva i relation till centralorternas centrum. / The Swedish library act states that the public libraries should promote the interest for bildung. The act regulates all public libraries and does not consider how different libraries vary in resources or economic factors. Both bookmobiles and rural libraries could have limited recourses and funds in relation to larger libraries and libraries in larger cities and the library act does not describe how the libraries should promote the interest for bildung. This study therefore aims to investigate how staff working on rural bookmobiles consider the concept of bildung, the rural bookmobiles importance and how the staff implements bildung in their daily work. The study consists of seven interviews with library staff from four different rural municipalities. To gain a deeper understanding of how the rural bookmobile staff consider and work with the concept of bildung a practice theory perspective is used. Stein Rokkans’ and Derek Urwins’ theory of center and periphery is used as a theoretical frame intending to illustrate possible differences and challenges that may occur on rural bookmobiles. The result of the study shows that the rural bookmobile staff work with bildung by offering a wide assortment of literature but also by library activities and by being a social gathering point. The function of the rural bookmobiles is described by the staff as important, especially as a gathering point but also as a bridge to reduce the isolation that can occur between the rural periphery and the central centers.

Bibliotekens roll i samhället är viktig, inte bara som en plats för kunskap och lärande, utan också som mötesplats. Genom att plocka ut biblioteket som koncept i en offentlig utomhusmiljö, ville jag undersöka möjligheten till att skapa en syntes mellan bibliotek och stadsrum genom gestaltning. Med denna tanke som utgångspunkt har jag utformat ett designförslag som på ett mer tillgängligt sätt erbjuder  kunskap och lärande och samtidigt som platsen uppmanar till möten och reflektion. Platsen för mitt projekt  som jag utgått ifrån är Orminge centrum som ligger i Nacka kommun utanför Stockholm. 2015 antog Nacka kommun ett nytt detaljplaneprogram för Orminge Centrum, vilket jag har studerat noga samt använt som utgångspunkt i flera delar av det här projektet. För att hålla en tydlig koppling till området har jag genomgående jobbat med Orminge som inspiration. Både genom att studera och analysera det befintliga biblioteket i Orminge centrum, samt genom att utforma designprinciper utifrån platsens befintliga identitet. Tack vare intervjuer har jag fått kunskap om hur biblioteken fungerar som mötesplats, större förståelse för hur ett detaljplaneprogram kan se ut samt hur man kan arbeta för att öka barns nyfikenhet för läsning. Dessa insikter har varit nödvändiga för att kunna genomföra projektet. Resultatet blev ett skulpturalt utomhusbibliotek som fungerar som en bokbytarplats. Designförslaget följer ett program som jag tagit fram genom analys av det befintliga biblioteket i Orminge centrum.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute with knowledge on how library staff work to increase cognitive accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities in libraries. According to the Swedish Library Act and The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), people with cognitive disabilities are a priority group. The aim is achieved through five semi-structured interviews with library staff that actively work to increase cognitive accessibility for this group. The empirical data from the interviews were categorized into themes and analyzed through a combination of M. K. Buckland ́s fifth barrier in the theory of Access to Information, and Johansson and Larsdotters five categories of information.  Our study shows library staff´s perceptions and descriptions of the work that is done to increase cognitive accessibility in libraries. Two parts that seem to be important are a friendly behavior from the library staff towards people with cognitive disabilities, and the reduction of impressions in the library room, in order to avoid information overload. The staff's commitment, competence and collaboration with the focused user group, appears to be key factors in the development of cognitive accessibility work in libraries.

Den här vetenskapliga essän utforskar hur skönlitteratur kan bidra till bibliotekariers kompetensutveckling när det gäller läsfrämjande och demokratiutveckling. Essän visar att det parallellt existerar olika förståelser av vad läsning och skönlitteratur är. Läs- och litteratursyn påverkas av sammanhang och är ständigt föränderlig. Essän kommer fram till att närbibliotekarier arbetar läsfrämjande är det viktigt artikulera vilken läs- och litteratursyn en utgår från.Essän utgår från ett boksamtal som några bibliotekarier har om romanen Brun flicka drömmer. Boksamtalet ingick i en kompetensutvecklingssatsning. I reflektionerna om boksamtalet stiger det fram att skönlitteratur erbjuder nya ingångar och perspektiv att diskutera läsning, skönlitteratur, inkludering och rasism som är några av bokens teman. Brun flicka drömmer erbjuder en plats för samtal som är icke-hierarkiska och där känslor och sinnesintryck får ta plats. Essän kommer fram till, genom att vända sig till Jonna Bornemark, att skönlitteratur kan främja bibliotekariers professionella omdömen. Essän visar att skönlitteratur kan bidra till aktivt lyssnande och uppmärksamhet, vilket kan leda till frågor om vilken värld vi vill ha och vilken värld vi kan föreställa oss.Essän diskuterar positionerna boksamtalets deltagare har till varandra genom Paolo Freires tankar om pedagogik och dialog. Texter av Toril Moi och Elisabeth Hjorth ger perspektiv på samhället, människor, läsning och litteratur, samt relationer dem emellan. Citat från Brun flicka drömmer vävs in i essän för att visa hur romanen är en vän, en samtalspartner, en kunskapskälla och en utgångspunkt för reflektion. Essän cirkulerar kring frågorna vad vi egentligen ska ha skönlitteratur till och varför vi ska läsa skönlitteratur.