Our purpose with this study is to examine how the visitors at the public library of Stenungsund find the library service, if they are pleased with it and what they expect from the library in the future. Why they visit the library and what they actually do there? We also wanted to find out if the visitors would be interested in getting more computers and information technology into the library. Since the library has the highest rates of library loans in Sweden we are interested in, if this has anything to do with the library location which is close to the shopping centre of the town. We used questionnaires in our study and received 560 answers out of 580 handed out to the visitors. It is our conclusion that the visitors are more than pleased with the library service, and also that the location of the library is of importance to how frequent the library is being visited.

This bachelor thesis analyses the role and identities of the prison librarian in three Swedish prisons in order to see how the librarians themselves understand their role and their different conditions. After interviewing and recording the three librarians I analyzed the material with the identities created by the researchers Anders Ørom and Trine Schreiber. Ørom mentions three identities which focus on the content both from the librarians´ perspective but also from the users´ perspective. A fourth one discusses the more practical work, for example cataloguing and classification. Two other ones stress the technological aspects of the librarians´ work tasks. Finally an identity is described by Schreiber which focuses on the experience the library is able to create which in some way competes with other media. It also stresses the information technology aspect of intermediation. The study shows that the more content-focused identities are mostly used by the respondents. Time and restrictions are two existent conditions which affect the possibilities to use the identities. Technology is discussed as an important part of preparing the inmates to a life after release, but is not a major focus for the respondents at the moment. The most important role according to the respondents seems to be the needs of the inmates.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate children’s access to specific children’s activities at Swedish public libraries 2005. The thesis is based on literature studies and qualitative interviews with children’s librarians, library directors and local politicians at two demographically different libraries in Gothenburg.The sub questions are: What measures exist to promote children’s access to public libraries and children’s activities when it comes to: law and other political statements: different efforts on the state level and different efforts on the municipal level in the direct activity with children at public libraries? What driving forces and needs justify activities for children at public libraries? How will the responsible persons judge that the efforts are sufficient? The result of the study shows that children’s access to library activity has increased in the last couple of years due to reorganization, economic savings with closing down of library affiliates and because libraries have given priority to other things, like IT and new media. Children’s librarians have got new assignments and less time for children’s activity.The conclusion of our investigation is that children’s librarians are ambitious in their work, but unfortunately don’t give children’s library activity adequate resources. Maybe due to the unwillingness of library directors and politicians to give priority to any target group before another group, despite their commission that children shall be given priority at Swedish public libraries. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this essay is to investigate how national and international guidelines relate to library services to prisoners in Sweden and to further illuminate this through a comparison with some examples from a few European countries. The essay examines what rights to library services Swedish prisoners are given in law, what national and international guidelines say, what demands are placed on the librarian in the form of education and suitability, what economical resources exist to realise library services to prisoners, what measures are taken to provide for language minorities, and how the security aspect is handled when it comes to computers and information technologies. The information has been obtained through interviews as well as through studies of books, articles and conference proceedings. The essay includes a small case study of how library services are provided for prisoners in Haparanda. Findings point to a gap between the goals that are presented in national and international guidelines and how the library services to prisoners function in reality. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The goal of this Master’s thesis is to explore the approach and general attitude of public libraries regarding Sign Language Literature. There is a need to study and advance how the deaf can find ways to read in their own language, as it is as important to them to be able to read in their language, as it is to the next hearing person. The purpose is to define and explain the full capacity of the problem. In the process of research, by investigating how library staff approaches and deal with deaf patrons, the nature of the patron-staff relationship is revealed. A closer look at the collections of Sign Language Literature that are found in libraries today, further expose how the deaf patrons’ fundamental need for literature in their own language has been marginalized. In collecting data, the method used was qualitative descriptive alignment. Based on fourteen interviews in total, eight public libraries, three state deaf school libraries and three library advisors were included in the research process. Moreover were previous research and the method of subjective interpretation of law used. As this thesis seeks to put forth, results show that library staff has little or no knowledge of deaf people and their needs. Although the respondents maintain a positive attitude toward Sign Language Literature when asked, they lack specific training in how to successfully accommodate deaf patrons; thus, libraries and their staff remain somewhat ignorant in their approach, failing to take their deaf patrons as seriously as the hearing population. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Reading is something that has not been obvious to those who have been admitted to prisons around Sweden. The reading was considered to be more of a rehabilitation of the interns and the reading was used to make them better people, a way to show that the prison made prisoners better citizens. It would take a while for the librarians to gain access to the prison libraries. However, it did not become very easy then. There was a high wall between the professional groups, the prison staff and the librarians and the communication between them was not the best. As a result, the work was thwarted and misunderstandings occurred. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that librarians got a breakthrough in the matter and the debate surrounding the neglect of prison libraries. Articles and books were written on the subject that raised the issue. This essay concerns the discussion that was held at this time through a discourse analysis, with the WPR approach and its analytical questions as tools. The method found that the problems behind the neglect of the prison libraries were not only the most obvious, that is, the financial shortage, but the evaluation of the interns' reading. When reading went from being a rehabilitative and educational issue to becoming more of an entertainment, its value diminished. By studying the discussions that took place during the time period, the problems could be identified and analysed. Subsequently, the solutions that were executed were identified and this thesis studied how the solutions coalesced in a major venture at Hall prison. The investment was made by the School Board and the Prison and Probation Service and was one of the largest investments made with serving librarians, newly built library, sufficient budget and a solid library service during the three years of the project.

The purpose of the present qualitative study is to create knowledge about librarydigital services and their marketing to patrons with disabilities in Armenia, on theexample of the National Library of Armenia, as well as, to discover opinions of theNLA librarians and patrons with disabilities about the importance of library digitalservices to people with disabilities. Literature review and qualitative interviewing has been employed as methods to collect the empirical data. The results have been analyzed and discussed based on the library-marketing model of marketing research, marketing segmentation, marketing mix strategy and marketing evaluation suggested by Koontz & Gubbin (2010). It has been concluded, that 1) e-accessibility issomething new at the NLA and the NLA does not provide equally available knowledge, resources, services, facilities to patrons with disabilities, because of the following main challenges: lack of continuous funding and support from the state, lack of appropriate facilities and technologies, lack of qualified staff, and historicallyinherited library infrastructure impediments; 2) no library service marketing is conducted to patrons with disabilities at the NLA; 3) the opinions are that provisionwith such services is very important to people with disabilities, since they allow those people to gain access and use information in formats adopted to their various needs, and, of course, they become integrated into the modern society. The important role of a library as a non-discriminator and copyright protector in a developing country when delivering digital library services to patrons with disabilities has also been discovered. / Program: Masterprogram: Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, Digitala bibliotek och informationstjänster

Policy documents in the public library field, such as the library legislation, local political goals and intra-library plan documents, often include ambitious but ambiguous formulations. This two years master’s thesis examines the relationship between four policy documents and library practice in a local context. The theoretical framework is inspired by a sociocultural theory developed by the Swedish professor of pedagogical psychology Roger Säljö. The theory emphasizes the importance of context to learning and development. The thesis’ method is a case study. The study compares how § 8 of the Swedish library legislation is interpreted in three local policy documents and how the clause is implemented in local library practice. The local library practice studied is the work of one working group which has the special assignment to implement the statutory commission for public libraries to provide special attention to immigrants and other minorities. The main empirical material is hence derived from analysis of four policy documents and from qualitative interviews with the five members of the working group. The method of analysis can be described as a questioning in three stages. What is stated by the documents and the informants? What do the statements mean in relation to other statements? And finally: how can the statements be understood in relation to the theoretical framework and to results from previous research? The main result of the analysis is that the policy documents do not function as a determinant context of library practice. Instead the policy documents play roles as tools used by the library staff to fulfill situational needs in the local library practice. In the conclusion I argue for further research on the content of policy documents and the function of policy documents in library practice. One possible aim of such research could be to enhance librarians’ abilities to use policy documents to serve their professional purposes.

When applying for a library card you normally need to show a valid ID and register your contact information. Some people cannot meet these requirements, e.g. undocumented immigrants, and this thesis examines how pub- lic libraries in Sweden act towards this group. The purpose of the study has been to examine which arguments have been used in the discussion regarding undocumented immigrants’ right to become library patrons, and to examine how the public libraries interpret the Swedish Library Act, which states that public libraries should be accessible to everyone. To examine how Swedish public libraries presently handles this question, a survey was sent out to public libraries in all of Sweden’s municipalities, and in three of them interviews were conducted and the public debate analysed. The thesis’ theoretical framework consists of recent year’s discussion in citizenship theory that challenges the notion of citizenship and suggests that presence and acts of citizenship grant even non- citizens certain civic rights in the modern welfare state. The results of the study show that some public libraries in Sweden have discussed how to act towards un- documented immigrants and have adapted their policies to meet the needs of this user group. The argument ana- lysis shows that the discussion regarding the undocumented immigrants’ right to become library patrons consists of a practical as well as an ideological discussion. The libraries want to be able to identify their users, but it is not a question of principle. In the political discussion, however, the opinion is expressed that individuals without permission to be in the country should not be granted access to public institutions such as public libraries. For the libraries, presence is more important than citizenship, and the Swedish Library Act, if somewhat vague when it comes to the rights of undocumented immigrants, supports these policy changes. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Enligt IFLA:s mångkulturella biblioteksmanifest och Unescos folkbiblioteks- och skolbiblioteksmanifest har folkbibliotek ett ansvar att främja kulturell mångfald. Samtidigt påvisar forskning att folkbibliotek kan fungera som en förlängd arm i den så kallade integrationsprocessen. Med detta som bakgrund har uppsatsen som syfte att studera bibliotekarier vid ett stadsdelsbibliotek i Uppsala och analysera de villkor som präglar deras verksamhet riktad mot invandrare. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk är inspirerat av ett sociokulturellt perspektiv så som det beskrivs av pedagogikprofessorn Roger Säljö i Lärande i praktiken – Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och Lärande och kulturella redskap: om lärprocesser och det kollektiva minnet. Teorin betonar kulturella och sociala aspekter i läroprocessen. I den vardagliga mellanmänskliga interaktionen kommunicerar man via kulturella redskap och dessa kulturella redskap är uppsatsens huvudsakliga studieobjekt. Studiens empiri består av fem kvalitativa intervjuer med bibliotekarier anställda vid ett stadsdelsbibliotek i Uppsala och studien arbetar utifrån frågeställningarna hur bibliotekarierna menar att de förhåller sig till Stadsdelsbibliotekets mångkulturella arbete, hur bibliotekarierna beskriver bibliotekets mångkulturella verksamhet och hur bibliotekarierna ser på bibliotekets uppdrag och roll gentemot invandrare. Informanternas utsagor har tolkats utifrån sociokulturella analytiska begrepp. Vilken kontext arbetar bibliotekarierna i, hur handlar bibliotekarierna i förhållande till kontexten, hur kommunicerar de med den invandrade lokalbefolkningen och genom vilka kulturella redskap kommunicerar de. Studiens resultat visar att bibliotekets verksamhet för invandrare baseras på de lokala behoven och att bibliotekarierna använder sig av språkliga-, kulturella-, sociala- och digitala kompetenser i sitt dagliga arbete. Dessa kompetenser fungerar som kulturella redskap som bibliotekarierna kommunicerar genom. Jag påvisar ytterligare att det inte finns någon motsättning mellan kulturell mångfald och ett integrationsarbete, tvärtom visar dessa istället tjäna varandra. I min slutdiskussion argumenterar jag för att bibliotekarier som verkar i en mångkulturell kontext bör få kontinuerlig fortbildning för att stärka dessa kompetenser som har visat sig verka underlättande i arbetet med mångkultur och integration.