The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine what role the new city library in Halmstad has for its users. The questions posed in this study are: What do the users actually do at the library? What roles are the most significant according to the users? Have the politicians succeeded in their intention of realizing a modern library according to the users? The theoretical starting point is Andersson’s and Skot-Hansen’s theory of four different roles of public libraries. In order to extend the model we added a fifth function; the one of aesthetical experience. We used a qualitative method and received 504 questionnaires. The empirical data indicates that the most important role is the one as cultural centre, i.e. traditional use of the library as borrowing of books and other media, reading newspapers and magazines and so forth. The roles of knowledge centre, information centre, social centre and the aesthetical function are also important to the users. Our conclusions are that the original idea of realizing a modern library has been a great success. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this thesis is to study 15 and 16-year-olds’ perception of libraries. Despite the fact that the youth is seen as a prioritized group when it comes to library work, the focus is often drawn to the children, and there is a risk that teens and their needs are set aside. My focus is the public library and how the young people in my study use it in their leisure time. The theory of the thesis is a model created by Skot-Hansen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Jochumsen and it highlights four possible rooms or functions in a library, concerning inspiration, learning, meetings and creativity. I have interviewed six teenagers in order find out how they perceive the library and its functions.My conclusions are that the teenagers consider libraries good and important, but that the interior as well as the activities can be improved. They want to interact with each other and take part in various creative activities. If the libraries change these functions according to the needs of young people they can transform the library into an attractive place for the youth. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to seek knowledge about how children and their parents use the children’s section in a newly built library, and what function it has for its users. We also want to seek knowledge about how the children’s section is seen as a meeting place by the parents.Our research questions are: How is the children’s section at the public library of Lidköping being used as a meeting space, performative space, inspiration space and learning space? What are the functions of the children's section at the public library of Lidköping for families with children? Do the parents see the children’s section as a meeting place, then in which way?The theoretical approach is based on The Four Space Model by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot-Hansen. We used qualitative interviews and non-participant observations to answer our questions. The results show that the library is mostly being used for reading, playing and to consort within the family. The children’s section functions as an entrance to books and reading, and it also has a function as a place where you spend time with your family. We discovered that half of the parents in our study did see the children’s section as a meeting place because they thought it is a good place to meet and consort.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of Swedish Public Library Websites and to determinate which activity they mediate. To analyse the Public Library Websites Andersson and Skot-Hansen’s model of roles for the Public Library has been used. This model in¬cludes four roles for the library: the library as a cultural centre, a knowledge centre, as an information centre and as a social centre. The questions examined are: - How do the public libraries occur on their websites? - How do the functions of cultural, knowledge, information and social centre occur on the Library Websites? The Method used for the studies is observation using as a tool a scheme consisting of the four roles in Andersson/Skot-Hansen’s model. The main findings are: - The social aspects of the Web have to be used in order to accomplish what the Library Law demands. - The Public Library Websites focuses on their catalogues and the activity of the physical Public Library. – The Websites is far from realizing the Library 2.0 vision as they offer no or inactive communication. –Websites which does not contain its own material works mainly as an advertisement for the Public Library. -The commitment to the websites of the community is a problem for the public libraries ambition to connect with patrons in new ways. -Even though aspects of all four roles in Anderson/Skot-Hansen’s model can be found on the Websites, these roles are still far from being central for the activity on the Public Library Websites.