This thesis describes the application of mass spectrometry (MS) to glycoprotein and oligosaccharide analysis. Glycosylated proteins are involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix recognition. Applications of trypsin and proteinase K to hydrolyze glycoproteins into glycopeptides that are compatible with MS and MS/MS analysis are investigated. For successful site-specific analysis of glycans, glycopeptides with short peptide (3-8 residues) are needed. Although trypsin is an important enzyme for protein identification, proteinase K is superior for site-specific glycan analysis due to its potential to hydrolyze every glycoprotein to short glycopeptides. The gas-phase dissociation pathways, kinetics and energetics of protonated oligosaccharides are described. The oligosaccharides dissociate via cleavage at the glycosidic linkages during thermal activation. Using double resonance experiments, it was established that oligosaccharides undergo sequential and parallel fragmentation reactions. Furthermore, dissociation of product ions to secondary ions was confirmed. Arrhenius activation parameters, Ea and A for protonated alpha- and beta-linked D-glucopyranose oligosaccharides are reported.

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