This thesis aims to investigate the elements in the implementation of information technology at the National library of Namibia and the library at the University of Namibia. It examines different components that have an impact on the two libraries use of information technology. It deals with the personel, support from the government and foreign aid donours, the users, co-operation with other institutions, the situation for libraries in Africa and the development of information technology in the African and Namibian society.The paper also illustrates the present situation at the two libraries, with their different experiences of the computer equipment, internal databases, on-line connections, CD-ROM and plansfor the future. Prospects for the successful use of information technology at the libraries are also discussed.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to find out how librarians working in combined school- and public libraries view their professional identity. The theoretical framework includes the seven librarian identities of Anders Ørom and Trine Schreiber combined with Beth Junckers theories of the culture sector with autotelic cultures and the education sector with instrumental cultures. The theoretical framework has been used in analyzing and discussing the results. The data has been collected through six semi-structured interviews, transcribed and processed for the analysis. The librarians were found to identify mostly with the culture intermediary identity in the culture sector. The information intermediary identity and the subject intermediary identity both were present in the school-librarian context, and the socialworking identity and the experience intermediary identity in the public-librarian context. Recommendations for further research are made based on the results.

The objective of this study is to create an overview of the existing research on makerspaces in libraries. It examines what the publication patterns look like and which subjects the research covers. Eleven academic articles have been studied and analysed with regards to bibliometric data and also by means of thematic content analysis. The analysis builds on R. David Lankes' theory that the mission of the library is to create a better society by facilitating knowledge creation in the community. The results show that research on makerspaces in libraries is still very limited, although the field covers many different aspects of the subject. Most of the research comes from USA and most of it has been published in the research area of Social science. The most cited article among the studied articles is written by Groenendyk & Gallant, and the article most cited by the studied authors is written by Lauren Britton. The themes discovered in the content analysis consists of descriptions of makerspaces, accessibility, makerspaces and users, makerspaces and society, the future of libraries and makerspaces in practice. The study also shows that makerspaces can be a way for libraries to fulfill R. David Lankes' mission of knowledge creation.

The aim of this study is try to map the view of libraries and promote reading in four SOU-documents (Statens Offentliga Utredningar/state public invesigations) from the years 1974, 1984, 1997 and 2012. Different approaches used to promote reading during the years are also investigated. The method, a Mixed Method Research, intends to discover rare or divergent terms in each of these documents. The documents directives and chapters related to promote reading are summarized. A quantitative content analysis which consists of a compilation of the terms in the documents is made. Unique or divergent terms are selected from this compilation, and further their contextual meaning in libraries and promote reading is investigated with a qualitative content analysis. Conclusions drawn from this study show that there are changes in SOU’s views of libraries and promote reading between the different years. For example, there was regularly a positive attitude to libraries and their role in promote reading during periods of declining reading abilities. Another example showed that Internet was held in a much more negative regard for people’s reading abilities during 2012 than in earlier years. A big change in the approaches for promote reading was technological advances due to the Internet, and the distribution of books via digital bookstores.

The Purpose of this paper is to illustrate how schoollibrarians work with integration. The study is based on thefollowing questions:1. How does the school library personal look on integration?2. What does the school library personal approach say abouttheir work with integration of persons with a differentbackground then Swedish?The method I chose to study this through is severalqualitative interviews with school library personal as well asearlier related research.The theory I chose to use for this study is Hans Ingvar Rothsmodel of the integration process.The results show that the school library personal does defineintegration even if they do not work with integration rightnow.My study also shows that there are some obstacles to thiswork, which is related to the lack of funds and other issues.And that the school library personal has different view ofwhat integration is. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Social media have become a bigger and bigger aspect of daily life for many ages and especially within the youth culture growing from digital interactions. At the same time libraries seems eager to use this medium to reach out to the youth to inform and to educate. But do we know enough about how these two groups’ views each other to be effective at this work? And is it even something that is wanted? What’s the image of social media from their point of view?The goal of this study is to investigate the image of social media from the point of view of two groups, librarians and youth. The study is based on a qualitative approach with a random selection of candidates. A semi-structured interview is the main method of collecting the data from these candidates, as it will give the best material matching the goal of the study.The paper has found that many of the candidates for the study, “even” though they think there will be a clear future for library use of social medias, still value the physical aspects of the library and more interactions face to face. In fact many of them think one can lose parts of what makes libraries and the library space so appreciated by youth, if they put too much of their resources into a digital format. However the results in this paper have been based on a sample study of a smaller group of candidates and so are in no way onclusive for the majority of the people within these two groups. Hopefully this study will nspire future studies into the interactions between these groups. / Program: Bibliotekarie

For young people today the ability to read and interpret text seems to be of decreasing standard. This bachelor thesis is trying to find patterns among five different library patrons, all adults and most of them readers for life. The specific aims are, through their individual stories, to find out what made and helped them become readers of literature for enjoyment and pleasure. How do they look upon themselves as readers, how do they find their reading and finally which role does it play in their everyday lives. Five semi-structured interviews have been conducted in a qualitative way and been put through a thematic-narrative analysis.The avid readers of this study all read throughout their lives and almost right from the beginning read a lot. Not all of them have been read aloud for as children in their home-environment. In various ways they share their reading with others and they all find ways to incorporate their reading interest socially in their lives. Most of the avid readers are members of various reading communities and throughout the practice of reading they seem to have developed successful strategies and knowledge in finding new reading. The search for reading material is mostly done outside the physical library building. Important sources for reading suggestions are close friends, relatives and media. Most of them identify one specific grown up as important for getting further and helping them developing as readers. That person does not necessarily have to be a parent. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate children’s librarian’s perspectives on children’s literature and reading of fiction books. This is a comparative study of Swedish and Lithuanian librarians. The main questions to be answered are how children’s librararians at public libraries motivate their selection and purchase of fiction for children and what kind of considerations there are behind the purchases. The thesis is based on four qualitative interwiews with children’s librarians in Sweden and Lithuania. The theoretical perspective of the thesis is based on a model of the three different approaches to children’s literature and reading - the pragmatic, the traditional and the emancipated. As a result we can see that all informants to a greater or less extent apply all of the pragmatic, the traditional or the emancipated views on children’s reading in selection and purchase of books, depending on several circumstances. Still, we can see that priority has been given to the emancipated and the pragmatic approach by the Swedish librarians, while the Lithuanian librarians give priority to the traditional approach. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This thesis is an attempt to study computer games and playful computer programs for childrenand youth at Swedish public libraries. The main method used, is qualitative interviews.The main reason the libraries in the study offer computer games and playful computer programsto their users, is that every member of the society shall have opportunity to use newtechnology such as computers and computer programs. The users of this media are for themost part boys. The librarians in our study wish to have pedagogical games and programswithout violent themes at their libraries. Lending computer games and computer programs isnot of any priority for the libraries.

The purpose of this study was to find out what kind of fiction 120 borrowers at Sundbyberg'stown library borrow and how they obtain information about the existence of the books theywant to borrow.I have carried out an inquiry among those visiting the fiction area of the library and alsointerviewed three librarians. To be able to compare my results with other more extensivesurveys, I have studied some literature about, e.g. reading and library habits. Furthermore, Ihave read articles about fiction at libraries and culture politics. I came to the conclusion thatcrime novels are the most popular kind of fiction whereas science fiction and fantasy fictionare the least popular ones. As to the way people get ideas about what they want to borrow, themost common way is to browse the shelves and the next common way is to get tips fromfriends.