This presentation covers the origin, history and scope of Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research; the editorial process and timeframes; research and scholarship for librarians; the peer review process; the components of a good research article; practical tips on what editors look for in a manuscript submission with examples from Partnership journal. The presentation is intended for anyone writing a research article but should be particularly helpful to first-time authors.

This paper covers the origin, history and scope of Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, the editorial process and timeframes, research and scholarship for librarians, the peer review process, the components of a good research article, and practical tips on what editors look for in a manuscript submission with examples from Partnership journal. It is intended for anyone writing a research article but should be particularly helpful to first-time authors. The paper was first given as a presentation at Ontario Library Association Super Conference on January 31, 2013. / Ontario Library Association

The purpose of this master thesis is to use marketing theory on the library’s activities. The marketing theory used is the 4Ps; product, price, promotion and place, as it's presented by Philip Kotler. Because the library can be seen as a service oriented organization Christian Gronroos theory of marketing in the service industry also has been used. A case study of the public library in Broby was made to illustrate how the public libraries’ activities can appear in the light of marketing theory. The library went through a dynamic development during the case study, due to the fact that the library moved to a new location. The staff and their manager are aware of that they work in a certain context. Their target groups have special needs and the groups get their information from certain places which the library take advantage of. They also use the institutional channels in the public sector such as the public schools to get their message out. According to marketing theory the context is essential to be able to adapt the products you promote and how you do it. Price has long not been an issue for the libraries’ services but price can also be non-monetary. Its important to know what this price consist of to be able to lower it. It might also depend on the context. The staff believes in the importance of the services that the library provide to the community and promote it to their users. But the employees feel that there is a misconceptions of the  library as a collection of books, which they want to change. Because the library offer intangible goods, services, it is hard to change, because the most tangible the library offers are the books. To be able to grasp the service the user therefore focus on these. To get away from this the library can materialize the library’s services in other ways which takes the focus away from the books.

This thesis is a discourse analysis analyzing public library librarians' talk on the subject of public library meeting places. Within the field of Library and Information Science the public libraries' functions as social meeting places have been scrutinized for more than a decade. Researchers in the Nordic countries in particular have looked at library users' use of the library space and have highlighted the sociologic dimensions of the public library and the meeting place functions. Few however have paid much attention to the library personnel's point of view. The discourse analysis perspective is about language use and how people construct the reality. Using the discourse psychology approach to discourse analysis as a basis of a discourse analytic framework this thesis examines how public library librarians use interpretative practises to construct versions of the phenomena talked about in order to suite the purpose of their talk. The analyzed data material is a transcript from a performed focus group where four public library librarians talked for about one hour on the subject of public library meeting places. The main findings is that the focus group members use eleven different interpretative repertoires in their talk. Interpretative repertoire is a close synonym to discourse. In Sweden the discourse analysis perspective in the Library information science is fairly new. Discourse analysis's made in the Library and information science has mostly been based upon written material. In the thesis it is suggested that there are differences in how discourse practises is being used in talk compared to how it is used in written texts. The talk seems richer on variations and more interpretative repertoires are to be found. The librarians in the focus group move seemingly free between discourses and subject positions. They don't just adapt to existing positions but also construct them to better suite their purposes. Different levels in the discourse order are not upheld in the talk. The impression is that the focus group participants float between discourses' subject positions and interpretative repertoires at all levels in a complex language-game allowing the librarians to take different stands that in a different context would be perceived as conflicting and problematic.

The aim of this master‟s thesis is to investigate the value and impact that reading groups organized by Swedish Public Libraries, have on its participants, role of the librarian and the Library as whole, according to librarian‟s conceptions. In literature and earlier research reading groups are described to represent an important reader pro-motion tool for Public Libraries. At the same time the typical reading group member is often described as a per-son with a familiarity of reading. Another purpose is therefore to investigate the contribution of reading groups in promoting reading, according to librarian‟s conceptions. A phenomenographic approach was adopted and qualit-ative interviews were carried out with five librarians at five Public Libraries. The phenomenographic analysis of the interview-material, concerning reading groups impact on its partici-pants and the Library as a whole, resulted in the following categories: reading groups perceives as a natural part of the Public Library service, reading groups inspirer to reading and literature interest, reading groups leads to human interactions and shared reading experiences, reading groups has a democratic function, limitations of reading groups and reading groups part in reading promotion. Comparisons have also been made to how reading groups fit the Public Library task, as it is described in Swedish Library law and Unesco‟s Public Library manifes-to. The analysis of the interview-material shows that reading groups in many ways fit the task of Public Library service, like promoting literature and reading, supporting individual development and be available to everyone. The phenomenographical analysis of the interview-material, concerning the librarian‟s part in reading groups, resulted in the following categories: administrator, educator, social inspirer and competence and interest for fiction. Comparisons are also made to Jofrid Karner Smidts thesis concerning the five different roles a libra-rian should fulfill working with literature promotion. Based on her thesis it´s foremost the librarian as a critic and literature expert, educator and as ordinary person that correspond with the interviewed librarians perceptions about what part they play and should play in reading groups. One distinct conception that transpired in the interview-material is that reading groups organized by Swe-dish Public Libraries do not necessarily have a specific reading promotion purpose, but that reading groups have potential to have a positive impact on the participants reading habits. Further that more active work from the librarians is required, in order to fulfill a reading promotion function. One of this thesis most important conclu-sions is that there seems to exist a need to make the literature-promotion task of Public Libraries more visible, that it is important that librarians is given the opportunity to develop their competence to fulfill this task and that reading groups can fulfill an important aspect in that context. This study is a two years master´s thesis in library and information science.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

This research focus on key groups; students with dyslexia, librarians and teachers, and interaction between these two professional groups regarding students with dyslexia. In searching for the exchange of knowledge and experience to meet dyslexic students needs, I have in this study turned the attention to librarians and their experiences with students with dyslexia.The purpose of the research has been through semi-structured qualitative interviews with four librarians, to explore and describe how they experience their work, in working with pupils with severe reading and writing problems, dyslexia, and interaction with teachers on this user group. The qualitative approach in the gathering of the empirical evidence is based on a desire to have an indepth and thoroughly understanding of the librarians experience.All informants in this study indicate that they see it as a natural part of their duty to keep themselves updated about dyslexia and what materials to suit the dyslexic user group. The informants have knowledge of dyslexia and have great knowledge and keep abreast on the latest technology of compensatory aids - alternative tools.The informants have primary a consulting and supply function for teachers and dyslexic students, where they are consulted on  suitable material in both fiction and facts in various disciplines. The informants highlights the importance of planning and preparation time to find suitable material, as audio books or easy read, so students who have a need for this also can be provided. They also have a major role in seeking information, then todays school is very demanding on the students to seek information themselves. The informants experience is that this requirement pose serious difficulties for dyslexic students.There is some discrepancy in the informants role depending on the library that they are employed at, where assignments and resources are of importance. Interaction between teacher and librarian occurred in a greater proportion with the secondary scool librarians than with the municipal and city librarian. Secondary school libraries are direct target at school activities and assignments and secondary school librarians are situated in school. They have transparency and participation in school activities, facilitating the work to catch up and assist the dyslexic students needs, as well as interaction with teachers and school staff.The informants desire greater interaction and requested guidance to specify their work both on their own behalf, but above all to be clear externally. Since their experience is that teachers have little knowledge of what the library and the librarian may contribute with as resource in general and in particular for students with dyslexia and compensatory aids. This was particular the teachers who are referred to the municipal and city library, ie. those teachers who do not have the librarian in their immediate vicinity. The informants request more knowledge from the teachers regarding librarian skills to utilise the libraries potential as a collaboration partner.

This master’s thesis looks at discourses that use the pronoun ”hen”. The media debate in Sweden over this pronoun in 2012 started in connection with the publishing of a children’s picture book: Kivi och monsterhund, by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Jansson. The essay investigates how eight librarians, who take an interest in and work with gender issues, talk about the pronoun hen and about this picture book and other books that have characters which are not named as a sex/gender. The essay takes a discursive perspective on reality and on the construction of knowledge and carries out a discourse analysis of the librarians’ talk in the qualitative interviews that were made for this study. In the analysis of these interviews Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of the gender system takes a central part. The result of the analysis is seven discourses that are central to the librarians talk about books and gender and where the pronoun hen is a focus or a related issue. The essay argues that gender categorization is a dominant discourse in our western society and that certain uses of the pronoun hen, especially the discourse named as the Human-discourse, challenges this domination. The discourses that most librarians used were within the reasoning of the dominant discourse of gender categorization. A conclusion is that the meaning of the pronoun hen is not determined by any one discourse but that there may be a political intervention working towards integrating the pronoun hen into the dominant discourse of gender categorization and thereby neutralising the pronoun.

<p>In the academic world, open access institutional repositories (IRs) are beginning to play a vital role in storing and disseminating scholarly communication. Through this method, higher education institutions are able to showcase their intellectual outputs and to contribute to sharing and building knowledge. This evolutionary process of scholarly communication is an important feature of knowledge societies. Furthermore, IRs allow scholars to make known the research they are involved in, which can result in their academic reputation improving, as well as the reputations of the institutions they represent.</p> <p>The purpose of this study is to examine the processes of establishing IRs in the four tertiary education institutions in the Western Cape, which form part of the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC). Within this consortium is the collaborative library project, the Cape Library Consortium (CALICO), which represents the four academic library services. The researcher investigated whether the four Western Cape Higher Education Institutions have established IRs and their experiences in doing so. They are examined in the light of the guidelines for successful IRs already established in the international professional literature on IRs. Throughout the study, the partnerships that are needed for the success of IRs, with a specific emphasis on the crucial role that the librarian might play in this regard, are a central focus.</p> <p>The study is a qualitative case study, relying on interviews with key informants from the four HEIs and analysing policy and other supporting documents. The study confirms comment in the literature that IRs evolve in &ldquo / messy&rdquo / and &ldquo / spotty&rdquo / ways. The key findings might be summarised in the form of four assertions:</p> <ul> <li>&ldquo / It is all about people&rdquo / </li> <li>Philosophical differences are significant</li> <li>Context and history cannot be ignored</li> <li>The role of the university library is ambiguous.</li> </ul> <p>It is hoped that the study of fledgling IR projects might provide insights useful to the broader IR research and professional literature.</p>

The Group Mentoring Programme which is the subject of this evaluative research was developed and implemented under the auspices of the Australian Library and Information Association by the author and a colleague. The main aim of the Programme was to facilitate the transition of new graduates in librarianship into the profession. The objectives of the research were: (1) to conduct an impact evaluation of the Programme; (2) to explore and develop the conceptual and theoretical bases of mentoring; and (3) to identify sources of stress anticipated and experienced by new graduates in their transition into the profession. This evaluative research represents the first report in the research literature to date in which a group mentoring programme of this kind has been evaluated using a quasi-experimental research design. The population comprised all graduates in librarianship from the two Western Australian universities offering these courses in 1996. Subjects in the experimental group were self-selected, and the remainder of the population made up the comparison group. (This was divided into two groups - those who did not have a current mentor, and those who had a current mentor.) Data were collected by means of pre- and post-test questionnaires, and analysed by multiple regression analysis. The main outcome variable was measured by Hall's Professionalism Scale, a validated measuring instrument. Results indicated that the Group Mentoring Programme was effective in only one of the five domains of professionalism as measured by this scale (that is, in having a sense of 'calling' to the field). This suggested that a group mentoring programme, by itself, is not a sufficient strategy for new graduates to attain a professional identity. A four-stage model of mentoring as continuing professional development is suggested as a strategy for teaching professionalism in a more formal, ++ / structured way. Results also showed that career-development outcomes were significantly higher in the Group Mentoring participants than in the two comparison groups, indicating that group mentoring is an effective career development strategy in the first year of such a programme. The concept of mentoring is extended to include group mentoring, which incorporates the essential characteristics of mentoring; it is also suggested that group mentoring includes the potential for practising three forms of mentoring relationships: individual, peer and co-mentoring. Two broad areas for future research are suggested: longitudinal studies examining the outcomes of group mentoring, and studies extending the theoretical and conceptual bases of group mentoring.