The paper is a research of"The Library project", a three-year collaboration project betweenArbetarnas Bildningsforbund, Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, Sveriges Författarförbund and public libraries at 14 places in Sweden.The goal of the project is to find new forms for collaboration between libraries, authors and organisations for adult eduacation under the motto "two branches of the same education tree".The purpose of this research is to make a close description of the project and also look at the goals anf purposes of the different actors in the project. The main thought is that the different goals and purposes have caused at least some of the problems in the project.

The purpose was to examine how the pre-schools used the public libraries in two Swedishtowns. We also examined if and how the pre-schools and the public libraries were coopera­ting.Literature showed that it is possible to stimulate children's language development and this is a duty for pre-schools and public libraries. We sent an inquiry to all pre-schools divisions in both towns. We interviewed two librarians. Our results showed that the pre-schools did use the libraries to a great extent but they didn't cooperate with the libraries in the sense that they had elaborated agreements. It was a great joy for the teachers and the children to read and it was useful. The respondents of the inquiry and the librarians wanted to exchange knowledge and experiences. The last years' cuts in municipal budgets and changes of organisations negatively affected the possibilities of cooperating. The teachers inquired especially some information about books.Our conclusions were: cooperation between the pre-schools and the libraries is one possible way to secure children 's access to books and libraries and to improve the work with literature among children.

This paper aims to investigate how Helsingborg’s city library’s visi-tors feel about computer games being available for lending and in which way computer gamers see Helsingborg’s city library as a resource. This was examined first with a study of 100 of the library’s visitors and then with five interviews with computer gamers and an interview with the librarian responsible for purchasing games.The study showed that most visitors were neutral to having games at the library and of the ones that were not neutral many more were positive than negative. Of the five gamers who were inter-viewed, there were several who had borrowed games in the past. Although all the gamers appre-ciated the opportunity of games at the library, they did not see the library as an obvious resource.The conclusion of the study is that computer games are an appreciated opportunity that can tempt new visitors to the library and that games can renew the library’s offerings and profile. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to get knowledge about how it is to work as a librarian at Gothenburg city library during a rebuilding process and during the time when they have worked in a temporary library so called niche library. Which part did they have in the renovation project and in the niche library? The aim is also to find out how the librarians have experienced their time in the niche library and if it has affected their profession and identity.The method that is used to answer questions of the study is semi-structured interviews with four public librarians. Through comparing previous research in building and rebuilding process I have analyzed the four public librarian’s part in the renovating process and the temporary library. I have analyzed how the librarians have experienced it during the time in the temporary library and how it has affected their profession and identity.The four librarians have been divided in different groups during the improvement process to discuss requests how they want it to look like in the library. In the end of the rebuilding process the librarians were rearranged into new groups based on competence and interest. The librarian’s requests have not always been fulfilled because of different participants have had different opinions. Because of some of the librarian’s short employment period and their activity in the professional field they have not been affected so hard by the reorganization. The librarians have had the opportunity to develop their work at the temporary library. But the temporary library has affected some of the librarian’s profession in a negative way and they have not had the opportunity to use so many identities as before as at the central library. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to examine how librarians experience implementations of changes in the physical space of the public library. The study seeks to answer the following questions from the librarians’ perspective: What are the underlying reasons for changes in the physical space of the library? What are the important functions of the public library to the community residents? What reactions do librarians get from community residents after changes in the physical space of the public library? The study is based on semi-structured interviews with librarians working at seven small public libraries in Sweden. A model of four library spaces, which was developed by Andersson and Skot-Hansen in 1994 and refined in 2012, is used as a theoretical framework to help analyzing the results. The majority of the libraries are structured according to the older version of the model. The results give evidence to the public’s understanding of the library as a physical space, a place where you can find books in shelves and qualified staff ready to help you with your questions. The findings also show that changes of the physical space are for example due to the need for bigger rooms, technical development or meeting place for the public. Finally, the results demonstrate that nearly all of the visitors to the libraries react positively to changes in the physical space and that more than half of the seven libraries have statistics giving evidence to an increasing number of physical visits and borrowed material. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to gain knowledge about the internalcommunication at a public library in Sweden, focusing on the flow of information and the library employee’s role as a source and receiver. This is an important subject because internal communication affects not only the internal work, but also the users. Despite this there are few studies about internal communication in libraries. The research questions used are: How do the employees perceive the role as source of information, and what choices do they make before they spread information? How do the employees perceive the role as receiver of information? How do the employees feel that the information flow works in the organization as a whole?The research is founded on five qualitative semi-structured interviews with the library employees. The study’s analysis model is based on Jan Strid’s model from his book Intern kommunikation inom organisationer, företag och myndigheter (Internal communication in organisations, businesses and public authorities), and contains the elements source - purpose, channel - message and receiver - effect.The results show that even though the general opinion amongthe employees is that the internal communication is working well, some problems are also revealed. For example there were varying understandings about what was expected of them in their roles as sources and receivers of information. The conclusion is that there is a need for open discussion about the internal communication, and that there is also much to be gained by establishing guidelines for information management. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to investigate the needs and wishes of 10-13- year old children, so called tweens, when it comes to their local library. What kind of library do the children want? How does the mission and different functions for the children's library of today correspond to the needs of the children? Children of this certain age have been interviewed in focus groups where they have had freedom to “create” their own library and discuss what they consider important in a library. Skot- Hansen, Rasmussen & Jochumsen's model (2011) with four important spaces for a library - performative space, learning space, inspiration space and meeting space has been part of analyzing the result. These four different areas for the library have been divided into threefunctions: a place for being, a place for learning and a place for creating.The result of the thesis shows, among others, that even though many of the aims of the libraries and the results of research correspond to the ideas and needs of the children, one of the most important functions for the children is the library as a place to relax, a quiet room, where they can dive into their books and other media, which has not been discussed in the research I have taken part of. Furthermore, there are good examples around the world of libraries where the children have been the creators and I think that most of the ideas the children come up with are possible to realize. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to gain deeper knowledge about how librarians in public libraries in Sweden view theirprofessional role with regard to the last decades of change in the library field. Especially concerning the technical evolution and towards a higher user orientation and market mindset, and in which ways this has influenced the librarians everyday working tasks. A particular focus has been placed towards the reference transaction, the use of computers and e-media, and the stock development. We believe that there currently is a changeover, from the libraries traditional line of function, towards them as more of service institutions.The method used in this study for answering the research questions and to gather empirical information is semi-structuredinterviews. The division is three more experienced librarians, with twenty years or more from the field, and three newlygraduated with less than five years as active librarians. We seek to compare if there are any differences in views between these two categories. The theory used for analyzing the results is Anders Ørom’sabout different librarian identities together with Trine Schreiber’s development of the model. Conclusions drawn from this study are that there is a similarview on the librarianship; the traditional role and the information intermediate roles has earlier been considered incompatible. Now they seem to come together in a “traditional tasks in new packaging”-thinking. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim with this master thesis is to study which ambitions and strategic aims Gothenburg’s district libraries have regarding their music sections. I have utilized my theory from Sanna Talja, a Finnish researcher in Library and Information Science. She identifies three perspectives in maintaining a music library. She calls them, general education, alternative and demand. I have performed a qualitative study, in interviewing ten librarians responsible for the music section at the district libraries. The results, from analysing, the interviews were discussed in relationship to Taljas research findings. Thereby, I could easily distinguish each libraries working methods at the music section and link them to Taljas perspectives. The conclusion of this study is that there are just a few libraries, in my material, who express that they have guidelines to follow and strategic aims to work toward. It was also shown that few of those responsible for the music sections had a strong interest in music. This lack of interest can also be translated into deficiency in competency. It can be assumed that this played a role in the way two libraries stagnated when it came to purchasing new music. Furthermore this study shows that quality is not considered very important when the libraries buy in music. Another conclusion from the study is that the libraries show low levels of knowledge on local users. Rhetorically, librarians stated that their knowledge of users was large. However, none of them have researched their local inhabitants on a deeper level. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This thesis aims to study the impact of the transition from communism to democracy on the public libraries in Poland. The central areas of study are changes in: the organisation of the public library system, the role of the public library in society, the librarian's daily work and job situation and collection development. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with public librarians, public library managers and researchers in Warsaw, Torun and Gdansk. The theoretical background consists of chapters outlining thoughts on democratic and communist library ideas and public libraries' responses to a changing society. The results show that the public library system has been affected by two major decentralisation reforms in Poland, leaving the libraries in the care of local governments. This has led to serious financial problems. The libraries have lost their former political function. Our informants however claim that the role of the public library has always been the same; to meet the needs of the readers. Today focus is on satisfying the needs of the growing amount of students. In the librarians' job situation there has been a shift from security, passivity and little need for responsibility to unemployment and a demand for activity and personal initiatives. The most significant changes for the public libraries, resulting from the political reforms, can be found in their collections and acquisition. The abolishment of censorship and the opening of the market have made it possible for the libraries to create their own independent profile. / Uppsatsnivå: D