During the last ten years, PIRLS and PISA have evaluated the reading levels of children and youth around the world, sometimes with grim results. The Swedish evaluation show a constant decline in reading comprehension, and Sweden, which from the start produced one of the best results in the world, have plummeted to the bottom of the ranks. The librarians of the public library have extensive experience of working with different projects engaging children and youth in reading, and so they have a major part to play in this matter. Consequently, the aim of this study is to examine and describe the different perceptions the public librarians have of these projects. Four research questions were formulated, each focusing on the perceptions regarding different aspects of the reading promotion projects. To answer these questions, a phenomenographical approach was adopted and complemented with semi-structured interviews as a means of obtaining empirical data. The results gathered from interviews with six different librarians show that the perceptions of the reading promotion projects share many similarities regarding the motivation, target group and purpose of the projects, but that the librarians relate differently to them. The conclusions drawn from this is, aside from the actual perceptions presented in the study, that the reading promotion projects are very much influenced by the librarians perceptions of them, as the librarians all have different demographic conditions to keep in mind, as well as different experiences of success rates with specific methods. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to see how the Swedish public libraries present e-books on their website. This study has tried to answer the following questions:1. How do the public libraries construct their definitions of the word e-book, and what patterns are there in the definitions?2. How is the e-book definition presented in the context of the public library websites?This study has formulated its own theoretical framework in regards to how you can categorize definitions in four different categories to help see the way a definition is constructed. The framework also contains how different parts of the definition work towards the purpose of the definition.This study has been conducted through a content analysis. Among the public libraries we have studied, we have not observed a definition that was generally used for the word e-book. However the similarities between the definitions were plenty. The definitions most used were descriptive definitions. They tended to contain the same elements but were expressed in a variety of ways. The result showed consistency with the literature in the field.We have also observed that the public library website tends to categorize the information on and/or definition of e-books below a variety of terms. We have also observed that the definition tends to be the first thing mentioned in the part about e-books. The definition tended to be placed above the fold on the webpage. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The focus of the thesis is to examine the regional branding ofpublic libraries in Norrbotten, with the main focus on Piteå public library, in order to find trends that indicate a successful branding based on Hariff & Rowley’s (2011) identified key factors.The empirical data has been collected through a triangulation of interviews and documents. The findings show that they have done a proficient preparatory work prior to the regional branding of the public libraries, and that the libraries have worked together with a communication bureau in their marketing strategies since the beginning of the public library cooperation. The results also show that Piteå public library, through branding efforts, received another relationship with the media where the media now occasionally contact the library.The conclusion of the thesis is that Piteå public library promoted the library through campaigns that provide the opportunity for activities and experiences, and that they want to convey the image of itself as a venue for social interaction. The marketing of the libraries fulfill the most of the criteria, but there are still areas of branding that needs to be further explored. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this essay is to try to find the differences and similarities of two public librariesin the town of Kristinehamn and the rural community of Vara during the year 1994. Especiallyinteresting was if the different political traditions of the two communities -left wing majorityin Kristinehamn and right wing in Vara- have influenced the forming of the public libraries.The comparison contains accounts from the annual reports produced by the libraries between1987 and 1994, a more thorough study of the activities and interviews with decision makers in1994. The interview with the decision makers indicates that there is a distinct difference betweenthe librarians and the rest of the informants, this distinction shows, that in a tight budgetsituation the librarians prefer not to cut down on staff while the other informants actuallyfavour to make cuts on the procedures handled by the librarians. The general opinionthough, is that they all agree that the role of the public libraries is to defend democratic rights.The final conclusion is that the material of this essay supports the opinion that the idea ofpublic libraries is stronger than the political differences in Vara and Kristinehamn.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites for children’s participation in the activities of the public library as expressed by six children’s librarians. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out to investigate how the librarians interpreted the concept of participation and viewed power issues between children and adults. Further, difficulties and possibilities experienced in working with children’s participation and manifestations of children’s participation in everyday library work were also investigated. The theoretic framework of the thesis was based on childhood theory together with concepts drawn from Gallagher on childhood and power relationships in work involving children’s participation. The results reveal that participation is viewed as a complex and problematical concept. The informants interpretations vary from participation as passive observers to involvement, at least to the extent of being asked to participate in the planning of activities at libraries. Although aware of the imbalance of power between adults and children, the informants described difficulties in allowing children to take control. A lack of time was found to be the greatest hinder in working with participation. Time, they argue, is required in order to create security, to build relationships and to be able to reflect on participation processes. The most common manifestation of children’s participation is the use of children’s suggestions for buying library materials. However, we conclude that children are in fact participative in that they have access to libraries guided by a child perspective. Children are listened to and respected by the children’s librarians although there is still much that can be done to improve the extent of children’s participation in everyday library work. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to describe the phenomenon ofmarketing. Four public libraries in the County of Kalmar have beenstudied in the aim to obtain information on their current marketingin the autumn of 2004, as well as their view of marketing and itssignification in connection to a vision that the Regional Library inKalmar has established. The vision is that the County of Kalmar isgoing to be the best Region of Libraries in Sweden in the year of2010. Target markets for the vision is the general public, studentsand entrepreneurs. The study has done a landing at an early stage ofthe vision, the starting point of which was in the year of 2001. Themethod used has consisted of interviews with four chief librariansof public libraries, and also an interview with the Chief of theRegional Library in Kalmar. The results of the study have shownthat these public libraries do not use any marketing planning.Therefore they lack a complete grasp of their marketing. Even themarketing of the vision lacks marketing planning. This results in agap between the management and the library personnel. Among thekey questions has been how to measure “best” and also if the librariesare ready to meet the needs of the entrepreneurs, a totally newtarget market for these public libraries. Until the time of our study,the chief librarians have been quite content with the marketing ofthe vision to the politicians, but displeased with the marketing tothe library personnel. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the creation and the design of a new public library. In order to concretize this, the study sets out from two examples, the public libraries in Simrishamn and Landskrona. The material used to attain the purpose of the study consists partly of interviews, partly of literature on the subject. To be able to put these two libraries in their historical context, the essay also provides a short overview of the development of public library buildings in Sweden during the 20th century. Another aspect that is discussed is the actual procedure of planning a public library from scratch. This aspect is also discussed in relation to the two libraries in question. The qualitative analysis was in turn based on some of the issues accounted for in the first part of the study: What are the reasons behind the creation of a new library building? What sort of conflicts can arise during the planning? What pros and cons can be found in using an existing building or designing a new one? Does the nature of the city have any impact on the design? Many differences where found when the two buildings where compared, but there where also a lot of similarities. Even though the procedure when creating the libraries where different, the main problems that surfaced where the same. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The main purpose with this MA thesis is to examine how visually impaired, disabled and people with dyslexia define service quality at the public library of Linköping. The method that has been used is focus group interviews. A focus group consists of four to eight people who are joined together, without knowing each other before, to discuss a certain subject. The aim is to get a wide spread of answers. A secondary purpose is to examine how this method works. The focus groups answers are placed under four themes. They are personnel, media, place and Internet/technical equipment. For visually impaired is personnel with empathy, audiobooks and much space inside the library the most important. The Internet is a good thing for them, while they don't use the library as a meeting place. For the disabled is personnel with empathy and accessibility to and inside the library the most important. Audiobooks is a good, though mostly unknown, service for disabled. This group does rather visit the library building instead of using its services over Internet. Internet made them feel more isolated. For people with dyslexia a helpful and understanding personnel is the most important thing. The library is an important complement to the school. Bok & band is a good service. It's important with a children's' department in the building. If people with dyslexia are going to use Internet it's best if the information is displayed in an easy reading way. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this study is to examine how adult students, studying at an upper secondary school for adults, search for information for their independent tasks in different subjects. These independent tasks are frequent in most subjects and are a part of the ”investigation-work”. For most adult students this is a new way of learning. Fifteen qualitative interviews with adult students have been conducted. Previous studies of information seeking in learning contexts conducted by Kuhlthau, Limberg and Kuhne are described. The adult students in my investigation mostly seek information in books or by the Internet. Because there is a very small library and no librarian at the upper secondary school for adults, most of the students go to the public library for information seeking. The education of information seeking has varied. Most adult students have good experience of this ”investigation-work” at school. They think this is a good way of learning. But they ask for more education in information seeking skills, particularly information seeking strategies on the Internet. The adult students' former experience often compensates the lack of practise in ”investigation-work”. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate the role of the public library when the local government in the municipality arranges distance education at university level. The thesis has two main areas of questioning and these are goals and resources. In the study it is examined if the local goals have changed during the period 2000 until 2005, due to the development of distance education. It is investigated if change actually has occurred and if it has, in what way the goals have changed. It is also examined if and how the goals correspond with the work that is being performed in the public library. How the library's economic situation is affected and what the consequences are for the library are also examined. The study is carried out in two parts, one through interviews with five persons within the municipality and the other part is a study of the official documents concerning goals at different levels within the organisation. No change has occurred in the last five years despite the fact that the municipality has started “Campus Alingsås”. The board of Culture and leisure has not made any decision on how to handle these questions and it is found that the librarians can find the situation rather frustrating. “Campus” has both the attention from the local government as well as the resources. The project resources were destined for the public library as well as “Campus” but so far the cooperation has just started and the money that was meant for the library has not yet been used, at least not for library tasks. It is estimated that as much as 10 % of the librarian's time is spent helping students. During that time the librarians could accomplish tasks closer to the actual goals of the library. / Uppsatsnivå: D