The purpose of this paper is to describe how librarians andusers think of electronic books in libraries. My questions are:-What are electronic books, and how do they work?-How has electronic books been implemented by librariansin the libraries and on the libraries’ websites?-How do users describe their view of electronic books?-How do the librarians and users think of electronic book inthe future?To be able to answer these questions I have studied relevantliterature, made qualitative interviews with two librarians attwo similar libraries and I had dialogues with several usersElectronic books were introduced 2002 at the two libraries.In the beginning the libraries made different types ofmarketing, but today they only have the website withinformation. Their purpose was to try this out and offer theusers a new media. So far, there are few users who borrowthese books, and maybe it depends on technical conditions.According to the dialogues I had, most of the users have noidea what electronic books are. The advantages of electronicbooks, according to the users, are a fast way to reach a book,it is cheap and you do not have to return the book. Thedrawbacks are a limited choice of books Some of the usersthought they were difficult to use and preferred books withprinted text.However, both librarians and users think that electronicbooks will develop in different ways. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The purpose of this thesis was to figure out the feelings that librarians felt towards the e-books at the library. And if it affects their work at the library, especially from a financial point of view. The reason I decided to do this study is because the subject of e-books has become bigger in the last couple of years, and that I got the feeling that the librarians didn’t like them that much. So I did six interviews with six different librarians from different libraries to see if they felt the same thing or if they are in fact positive towards them.The results I received from my study were that the librarians are positive to the e-book. However, they were still worried about the financial situation for example regarding the budget. I compiled the results in to four different strategies, they are in short: Firstly; the libraries are positive to the e-book. Secondly; the library is hopeful to use the e-book to increase reading for people who are struggling with reading. Thirdly; they have a close collaboration with other municipality’s and fourthly; they are welcoming the future and are exited what it will bring. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This study aims to find out how the selection and acquisitions of ebooks made by university libraries is affected by vendors terms of sale. The empirical data is based on interviews with libraries working with selection and acquisition of ebooks. The interviews points out, according to Evans’ model of collection development, that the collection development doesn´t work the same way with printed and electronic books. The study also finds out that the complexity of the ebook marketplace implies the application of new method of ebook selection, by libraries.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the usage of and attitudes towards electronic books among graduate and PhD students at Karlstad University. The main questions are: How do graduate and PhD students use electronic books? To what extent are electronic books used compared to printed books? To find the answers, a user study was carried out at Karlstad University library. The results show that a majority of the respondents are aware of the possibility to use electronic books but prefer to use printed ones if they have to choose. Many respondents also complained about difficulties reading a text on the computer screen. However, 60% of the respondents are of the opinion that the library should continue to purchase electronic books. / Program: Bibliotekarie

<p>I denna rapport undersöks hur elektroniska böcker (eBooks) enligt standarden Open eBook Publication Structure kan komprimeras på ett effektivt sätt. Anledningen till att området valts är att en välanvänd standard för eBooks inte finns för tillfället. Standarden är relativt ny och senaste versionen av specifikationen har kommit ut under 2002. Med i utvecklingen av standarden finns många stora företag som exempelvis Adobe Systems Inc. och Palm Digital Media. En litterär undersökning för passande komprimeringsalgoritmer har gjorts och två algoritmer för komprimering av eBooks har efter undersökningen utvecklats. Tester och slutsatser angående komprimeringseffektiviteten hos komprimeringsalgoritmerna finns också dokumenterade i rapporten.</p>

I denna rapport undersöks hur elektroniska böcker (eBooks) enligt standarden Open eBook Publication Structure kan komprimeras på ett effektivt sätt. Anledningen till att området valts är att en välanvänd standard för eBooks inte finns för tillfället. Standarden är relativt ny och senaste versionen av specifikationen har kommit ut under 2002. Med i utvecklingen av standarden finns många stora företag som exempelvis Adobe Systems Inc. och Palm Digital Media. En litterär undersökning för passande komprimeringsalgoritmer har gjorts och två algoritmer för komprimering av eBooks har efter undersökningen utvecklats. Tester och slutsatser angående komprimeringseffektiviteten hos komprimeringsalgoritmerna finns också dokumenterade i rapporten.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to gain insights into students’ usage and attitudes towards electronic articles and electronic books and how students feel about a change from print collections to digital collections at Växjö University Library. The main questions are: How do different groups of students use the library collections of electronic articles and electronic books? What factors influence the usage of the library collections of electronic articles and electronic books among students? What are the students’ experiences of reading electronic books in comparison with reading print books? What would different groups of students think if the literature they need for their studies were purchased in electronic form instead of print? To answer the questions a user study was carried out at Växjö university library. A web survey was sent to students that had a library card and an email address registered at the library. The result shows that a majority of the students had used the electronic articles but only a third had used the electronic books. The most important factor for users of electronic articles and electronic books was the ability to access them at home and around the clock. Many respondents complained about the difficulty of reading text on a computer screen, and 64 percent preferred to read print books, but 62,7 percent could accept to use electronic books instead of print books and 50,9 percent liked the idea of electronic textbooks instead of print textbooks at the library.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the situation for ebooksin Swedish public libraries. The background is anincreasing lending of e-books in public libraries, with anacquisition model formed when e-books were more of anexperiment in a few libraries. The debate has escalated in therecent years and in this thesis I aim to investigate thelibraries’ experience with e-books and the current pricemodel. The empirical material comes from interviews witheight head of public libraries in the Västra Götaland region.As theoretical background, I have used Michael Buckland’sfour roles of collections and price models from Lee andBoyle.My results show ambivalence with the price model. Thereare worries that the cost will escalate out of control, but atthe same time my respondents do not want to lose thebenefits of a digital file by limiting the use of it to f e oneuser at a time. At the moment my respondent are not beingactive, but are instead waiting for a better solution to come,perhaps from the Royal Library. Looking at the roles ofcollection regarding e-books, the effect is disputable andpoints towards centralization, mostly because of theindividual libraries’ lack of independence and control overthe e-books. I also suggest that we look at e-books fromanother point of view: that we could benefit from regardingthem more as databases than books in our collections. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Med grund i tidigare forskning som belyser problematiken om att barn lämnas ensam med digitala verktyg vid högläsning av elektroniska böcker har denna studie fokuserat på högläsning av elektroniska böcker med pedagoger. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka kunskaper inom literacy som konstitueras när pedagoger läser högt ur elektroniska böcker. Studien har tar sin utgångspunkt ifrån följande frågeställningar, Vad kännetecknar pedagogens handlingar under högläsningsaktiviteten av den elektroniska boken och hur möjliggör handlingarna interaktionen mellan deltagarna? Vilka kunskaper medierar den elektroniska boken till barnen? samt Hur medierar den elektroniska boken dessa kunskaper? Studien grundar sig på ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande och genomfördes utifrån en kvalitativ ansats med observation som metod och videodokumentation samt fältanteckningar som dokumentationsverktyg. Observationerna skedde på en avdelning, på en förskola, i södra Sverige med barn i åldern 2-4 år. Resultatet har analyserats med analysmetoden interaktionsanalys och är tematiserad tre i teman, Pedagogens handlingar som ett stöd för barns begreppsförståelse, Pedagogens handlingar som ett stöd för e-bokens hotspots  och E-bokens mediering av begrepp. Resultatet visar hur pedagoger genom verbala och icke-verbala handlingar stöttade barns begreppsförståelse samt vägledde de genom e-bokens interaktiva funktioner och berättelse. De verbala handlingarna kännetecknas av undervisande frågor, uppmaningar och vägledning medan de icke-verbala handlingarna är blickarnas riktning, gester och fysisk beröring. Pedagogernas handlingar har även möjliggjort interaktion mellan deltagarna. Ett annat framstående resultat är hur e-boken medierade olika begrepp för barnen genom sina illustrationer, animationer och ljudeffekter. Dessa interaktiva funktioner levandegjorde begreppen stundvis och gav barnen möjlighet att delta i undervisningen, istället för att endast lyssna.