The aim of this meta-study is to present an overview of the methods used in Master theses written at The Swedish School of Library and Information Science at the University of Borås, where all Master theses from 1999, 2004, and 2009 has been studied. The aim includes examining if there is a connection between college (Swedish term: kollegium) belonging and methods used but also to examine and compare the qualitative and/or quantitative approaches to the methods. In the 252 Master theses studied, 353 different choices of method are recognized. After taking note of the methods, six categories are created in which the methods are placed. The categories are: Interview, IR-test, Observation, Studies of Text, Survey, and Other. The result is presented in charts to give a clear overview and allow comparisons between years and/or colleges. The result of the study shows that over the three years the interview based studies is the most used method, followed closely by text analysis. Together these two categories represent three quarters of all methods used. The qualitative approach is the most commonly used. Furthermore the result shows that choice of method within a college shows similarities between the examined years, when, to an extent, the same methods are used similarly within all the examined years. A comparison between the colleges shows that there is a difference in choice of method depending on the college belonging.

This paper will portray the differences and similarities that exist between students whoattended the Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Borås.The study is based upon quantitative information gathered from a survey which wasdistributed to first-year students in Borås in the auturnn term 1994. A total of 77 studentsresponded to the survey.We also do a comparative study of the students at all the library programs in Sweden.This is partially based on the findings by a thesis prior to this one by the authorsSvalstedt and Österdahl.We found that the students in Borås differ mainly in their personal histories and backgrounds.When it comes to their attitudes towards the profession and educationalmatters they are similar. Further we found the same to be true in our comparison of thelibrary programs in total.