This thesis is based on an investigation to find out in what way 40 Swedish public librarieskeep and preserve their library materials. The investigation is based on inquiries sent outto the libraries. It deals with the keeping of books with regard to external factors which havedestructive effects on library materials as well as the safety at the library buildings. It is, aswell, about the preserving work being done at the libraries.Comparisons are made with literature and accounts about preserving measures and recommendationsregarding appropriate environment in premises and depositories. The resultsshow great differences between the libraries as to the library environment, i.e. from payingattention to the factors and taking measures to taking no measures at all. The safety concerningtheft and fire varies as well.Most of the libraries have old and/or special collections. Nearly all the libraries do simplerepairing themselves, while over half the number, in addition, apply to special firms for bindingor more advanced restoring work. Topicality, currency and the last volume are essentialcriteria of book preservation. There is an urgency to preserve local collections and valuableold materials as well.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how a newly built library and an old library from the sixties work out of an experience and feeling oriented view. Are the fundamental conditions of an old library compatible with the library standards of today? To be able to carry out this examination we have chosen two rather small Swedish libraries. One is the public library of Hässleholm, which opened in the year 2000, and the other is the public library of Kristianstad opened in 1965. The material used to attain the purpose of the study consists of literature studies and qualitative observations and interviews. The first main chapters of this essay are an overview of literature found on the subject. This is followed by a chapter including empirical material, were our libraries are introduced. In the discussion we reason about what we found from our literature studies and combine this with our findings from our empirical studies. Our conclusion is that both our two libraries succeed in satisfying the demands of a library today. The library in Kristianstad has, due to age and shortage of space, problems with operating the library. In Hässleholm the localities are furnished more from an ornamental than a functional point of view. This leads to a suboptimal utilization of the premises. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This thesis addresses the library environment and how it affects the accessibility for the library users. A study is made of the public library in Eslöv. We wanted to find out how the library staff, the senior librarian and the architect discuss the library environment, considering:• The accessibility for the library users.• The possibility for the users to orientate themselves in the library.We also wanted to see how we as users experience the library environment and compare these experiences with the results from the interviews. The material used consists of qualitative interviews, observations of users and our own experience studies. As tools to analyse our material we used a phenomenographic method and experience analysis. The analysis was based upon interdisciplinary theories mainly from our own field, environmental psychology and architecture. We found that the respondents discussed the library in two ways. As a lively, pleasant and permitting place for people to spend time in different ways, and as a serious place for work and study that needs to be calm and quiet. The possibility for the users to orientate themselves was also discussed in different ways. As a problem concerning the signs on the bookshelves and the difficulties to make them logical for the users, and as the problem that the users often could not find their way to different parts of the library. We also found that we as users missed clear signs in the library to a greater extent than the respondents. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this study is to examine how important a factor the environment and the interior is to the creation of a user-friendly children’s library. In this study, environment is taken to mean the furnishing and the equipment in the children’s area at the library. The environment plays an important role in society today and because of that this is a current topic. The case study was made at the public library in Halmstad, which is a newly built public library. We interviewed ten people who were connected to the children's division of the library; most of them employees. We wanted to know what they thought was a user-friendly environment for children at the library. We also wanted to know how they used the furnishing, colour, sound and light to establish a user-friendly environment. This study consists of both qualitative interviews and documents, mostly from the planning stage of the library. We subjected the interview material to different analyses which were based upon theories mainly from our own field, library and information science, but also from environmental psychology. We found out that the environment plays an important role at the children's division of the library. The flexibility of the environment was an important factor in optimizing the potential uses for the children's division, which created many possibilities for the successful execution of an extensive activity program. We concluded that it is important to be able to use the environment for many different purposes. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this study is to gain knowledge on the way library managers and librarians describe intentions and ways of working as well as their thoughts on what makes an attractive children’s interior design of public libraries. It is also an aim to acquire knowledge on the way they describe how the interior design works in practice. Two theoretical models are used in the study. One is Stephen Kaplan’s model of environmental psychology, which explains how visual aspects of an environment affects human preference. The other is that of Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen & Skot-Hansen, which involve experiences and activities connected to the library context. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis. The results indicate the aim towards a safe, accessible interior, which fits children’s needs and requests, and also appeals to their parents. The respondents describe an interior that supports reading promotion, and being stimulating and varied, both in form and in content. A strive for a balance in the interior design is indentified. However, sometimes conflicts and other difficulties arise from its use. This can disrupt the balance, and why it results in priorities. The conclusion is that it is difficult to meet all of the guidelines and expectations that are available to children’s libraries today, to strike a balance with the interior design, and succeed in an interior that is ultimate in all respects.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to describe in part the public library users’process when deciding which books to borrow. Focus is on the library users’experience of the process and how literature exposure can support them intheir choice of book. This study seeks to find out to what extent choices arespontaneously made at the library, which elements of exposure that the userfinds helpful in the process and which factors usually influence the user infinding new things to read.The data was gathered through 100 structured interviews with public libraryusers. To analyze the result a modified marketing research theory was used,providing a comprehensive view. The decision-making process can beunderstood as a combination of the orientation or attitude of the libraryuser, the behavior or tactics of the library user and the library environment.The results of the study show four examples of behavior patterns related tolibrary user orientations. The patterns are then linked to different aspects ofmediation of literature in the library environment. The study also presentsstatistics on spontaneous loans and divides these loans into three types. Byexamining the variety of library users’ behavior patterns and searchstrategies, this study contributes to further developing the literatureexposure of public library collections. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this master thesis is to create, test and evaluate an analytical instrument for children’s library environment based on a theoretical framework consisting of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Thomas Armstrong’s pedagogical application of the original seven intelligences. We wanted to investigate whether the environment in Rum för barn stimulated all of children’s different intelligences. We also wanted to identify possibilities and liabilities within the analytical instrument. In order to test the analytical instrument we conducted observations on the physical environment of the Swedish children’s library Rum för barn. We did not observe the staff, visitors or social interaction in the library. The results of our investigation of the environment in Rum för barn implicated that all seven intelligences were stimulated by the physical environment. We analyzed the results in a discussion where we compared them to our empirical material consisting of research about children and environment from different scientific fields. Our conclusions of this master thesis were that our analytical instrument made it possible to investigate the physical environment of children’s libraries. It also determined whether the environment stimulated the seven intelligences according to the theory of multiple intelligences. The analytical instrument could therefore be used for the development of children’s library environments. We also identified some liabilities in the analytical instrument, mainly concerning the definitions of some environmental concepts, age adjustments and the fact that we excluded observations of social interactions. We suggested solutions to the liabilities and encouraged further research on the subject. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The subject of this thesis is studying how physical libraryenvironments express ideas on the function of the library, asstated in guiding documents. The “physical library” isdefined as everything inside the library building, andexcludes the library architecture, focusing on things likefurniture, furnishing and the arrangement of physical media.The two questions asked in this thesis are: What aspects ofthe idea of a public library’s function, as expressed in theguiding documents of the library, are possible to study in thephysical library environment? In what ways can theseaspects be studied in the physical library environment?The study of the thesis is divided into two parts, a “prestudy”and a “main study”. In the pre-study aspects areidentified by reading guiding documents from differentpublic libraries, and analysing the result together withprevious studies on physical library environments. In themain study three Swedish public libraries (located inHelsingborg, Åstorp and Klippan) are visited, and theirenvironments are studied based on theory on what items andmeans of expression can influence the experience of thelibrary function.The four aspects that are identified in the pre-study areculture, education, accessibility, and development.According to the results of the main study, culture isexpressed in the library environment through aesthetics,education through the environment being inviting andstimulating for studies, accessibility by the environmentbeing inviting, functional and democratic, and developmentby modernity. It is also concluded that the aspects areinterrelated to each other. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Denna studies syfte har varit att belysa hur bibliotekarier på svenska folkbibliotek arbetar med besöksbemötande och att motverka besökarnas biblioteksångest. Studiens metod var kvalitativ och det empiriska materialet bestod av intervjuer med fyra bibliotekarier som arbetar på folkbibliotek i Sverige: en i västra Sverige, en i Mellansverige samt två i norra Sverige. Det empiriska materialet har först genomgått en tematisk analys varför de fyra huvudteman sen analyserats med utgångspunkt i den tidigare forskningen, symbolisk interaktionism och inbjudandeteorin. Studiens resultat visade att bibliotekarierna anser att besöksbemötande är viktigt för att lindra besökarnas biblioteksångest, få dessa att trivas på biblioteket och besöka det ofta. Av studiens fyra bibliotekarier är det enbart en som får kontinuerlig fortbildning på sin arbetsplats medan de tre andra får enstaka fortbildningsinsatser ibland. Alla respondenterna belyste i resultatet hur viktigt det är att få kontinuerlig fortbildning inom besöksbemötande då detta är en stor del av bibliotekarieyrket. Symbolisk interaktionism och inbjudandeteorin användes i studien för att skapa förståelse för bibliotekariernas interagerande, val att inte interagera med besökarna och deras förhållningssätt gentemot dessa. Studien visar att bibliotekariernas interagerande och förhållningssätt gentemot besökarna i sin tur kan motverka besökarnas biblioteksångest och skapa en trivsam biblioteksmiljö. I slutsatsen konstateras det att bibliotekarierna arbetar med att förbättra sitt besöksbemötande i form av dels att interagera med besökarna under arbetstid, samtala med varandra samt genom fortbildning inom besöksbemötande. Slutsatsen redogör även för att bibliotekarierna arbetar med att motverka besökarnas biblioteksångest genom att bemöta dessa med vänlighet, lyhördhet och hjälpsamhet. Bibliotekspersonal behöver även lära sig att läsa av vad besökarna känner för att kunna motverka och lindra deras biblioteksångest. Vidare framgår i slutsatsen att bibliotekarierna arbetar med att utforma bibliotekslokalen så att besökarna ska trivas och fortbildningsinsatser kan göra att bibliotekspersonalens kunskaper om bemötande, biblioteksångest och den fysiska biblioteksmiljön vidareutvecklas. Avslutningsvis lyfts förslag på framtida forskning fram som att granska hur fortbildningsmöjligheterna skiljer sig åt mellan Sveriges folkbibliotek och inom folkbibliotek i samma kommun, län alternativt region. Ett annat förslag är att granska chefer och beslutsfattares åsikter på fortbildning för bibliotekspersonal.

Introduction: The aim of this thesis is to explore library staff’s experiences of participation in a time of change, in this case, a move to new facilities. Using interviews and grounded theory, this qualitative study focuses on how such a change is planned, presented to the staff, and implemented. Method: In this study, twelve library employees from Swedish public libraries were interviewed about their experiences of participation during a move of the library to a new building or recently renovated building. The interviews have been analyzed using grounded theory and terms from organizational theory in order to categorize them and find differences and similarities in the experiences they describe. The organizational terms used for categorizing and analysis were participation, motivation, competence, communication, and information.Recent literature on the subject is scarce, and as a result the literature overview consists of texts from different areas, such as architecture, library and information science and organizational theory, in order to capture the interest of this study. Findings: The study found that library staff feel motivated to participate in workplace changes and want to be part of the planning process, preferably from beginning to end, but to engage properly they need both time and information. The results also suggest that library employees and architects need to find better strategies for collaboration. The library staff think that the architects do not have enough knowledge about the work tasks of library personnel and therefore cannot plan an effective library building. The library employees need more knowledge about the building process in order to explain why and how their workplace is to be built to accommodate the staff and their library users. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.