The aim of this thesis is to examine the information culture at Stockholm University library. The thesis examines how information culture affects information management and if the information culture is different within the organization. In order to investigate whether there are differences, two groups were studied: one consisting of four individuals in leading positions and one consisting of four employees. The thesis is based on a qualitative case-study method, where interviews and documents are used as a method to collect data and to gain a deeper understanding of respondent’s values, norms and behaviours towards information. Davenport & Prusak’s theoretical model An Ecological Model for Information Management  is used to study the organization as an ecosystem. The perspective on information management has been holistic, behaviour-oriented and human-centered. To gain knowledge about the information culture at Stockholm University library, Curry & Moore’s model The Evolution of Information Culture  has been used. The model consists of six components suggested necessary for information culture to flourish. The six components have been used as a theoretical framework and analytical tool to examine the information culture at Stockholm University library. The thesis identifies weaknesses in the information culture at Stockholm University library. Results in the thesis illustrates cultural differences between the two groups, regarding how information should be handled in the organization in relation to how it is actually managed in practice. These findings further show that information management in the organization is not as efficient as it could be. Stockholm University library has recently undergone a major reorganization and change of management, aspects which have been taken into consideration as they could have effect on the results. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library studies.

The purpose of this essay was first and foremost to find out the problems that exist around user education in a university library and the opportunities that exist for university librarians to improve their work with students. My method of use was qualitative and more precise qualitative interviews. By interviewing five teaching librarians with five different subject specializations, I wanted to get an an-swer to what they teach when they meet the students and how they view their teaching. Responses resulted then in an analysis using Christine Bruce's theory of information literacy and Carol C. Kuhlthaus theory of librarian roles and her theory of information retrieval process. In the survey and analysis section, I describe informants' background, teaching approach, their thoughts about education and the problems and opportunities they see with user education. What I mainly discuss in my analysis is the importance of understanding the information retrieval process, that IT competence is not the same as information literacy and the role university librarians can take in the information retrieval process. The survey results show, among other things, that many students do not see the benefits of user education, the contact between the department and the library is dependent on personal relationships and that teaching librarians (my informants) are ill-informed about students' prior knowledge. In the final discussion, focused on problems and opportunities, I write about how education could be more interesting if librarians were able to strengthen their educational foundation and thus self-esteem in situation surrounding teaching. I also write about the contact between the department and the library, how it needs to be strengthen so that it does not rely on personal relationships. Through an improved contact librarians would also be a more natural part of stu-dents' education. This is a two years master’s thesis.

Vid campus Skellefteå är två universitet verksamma, Luleå Tekniska Universitet och Umeå Universitet. Här studerar cirka 2600 studenter på fristående kurser och program däribland datorgrafik, nätverksteknik, sjuksköterskeprogrammet och socionomprogrammet. Enligt bibliotekslagens paragraf sex ska det vid varje högskola finnas ett högskolebibliotek. Campusbibiblioteket i Skellefteå kallas Skeribi och ligger på campusområdet. Syftet med min undersökning är att kartlägga studenternas användning av Skellefteås campusbibliotek. Undersökningen begränsas till att gälla studenterna vid fyra olika program; datorgrafik och nätverksteknik vid LTU Skellefteå samt sjuksköterskeprogrammet och socionomprogrammet vid UMU Skellefteå. Jag ville undersöka hur studenter vid nämnda program använde campusbiblioteket för att sedan jämföra resultaten programmen emellan. Jag vände mig till sammanlagt fyra klasser för att genom enkäter undersöka studenternas vanor och attityder kring campusbiblioteket. Skillnaden i biblioteksanvändningen bland de deltagande studenterna var störst mellan teknikprogrammen (datorgrafik och datornätverk) och socionom- och sjuksköterskeprogrammen. Studenter vid datorgrafik- och datornätverksprogrammet besökte campusbiblioteket i mindre utsträckning än socionomstudenter och sjuksköterskestudenter, och när de gick till biblioteket var det främst för att studera. Även socionomerna och sjuksköterskorna använde biblioteket som studieplats, men de bad om hjälp med artikelsök och utnyttjade bibliotekskatalogen oftare än teknikstudenterna. Utvärderingen har utgått från fyra bakgrundsvariabler: utbildning, tidigare biblioteksvana, avstånd mellan hemmet och biblioteket samt kön. Den variabel som enligt min undersökning påverkar studenternas biblioteksanvändning mest är programval. De tekniska programmen är till stor del praktiska medan socionomprogrammet och sjuksköterskeprogrammet har ett mer teoretiskt upplägg och det förklarar varför biblioteksanvändningen skiljer sig så pass mycket mellan programmen. Tidigare biblioteksvana och avstånd mellan hemmet och biblioteket hade ingen större påverkan på biblioteksanvändningen. Inte heller kön visade sig ha någon större betydelse för biblioteksanvändningen, det bör dock tilläggas att två av de deltagande utbildningarna är mansdominerade medan de två andra är kvinnodominerade vilket gör det svårt att avgöra ifall resultatet är en effekt av utbildning eller kön. Gemensamt för de flesta studenterna är att de är nöjda med personalen, lokalerna och studiemiljön.

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how students at Linköpings universitet use the discovery tool Unisearch by answering the following research questions: How do the students use Unisearch to find information? What types of problems do they encounter and what assistance does Unisearch provide? What are the students' opinions about Unisearch? We presented five students with five common library research tasks that students typically encounter. By using a combination of observations and follow up interviews we obtained empirical data, which we then analyzed using the model “The Five Dimensions of Usability” by Whitney Quesenbery. Our findings show that the students considered Unisearch to be an adequate search tool. They found Unisearch relatively easy and efficient to use. The main problem the students encountered concerned the terminology used in Unisearch, especially when it comes to limiters. Another problem encountered was that students sometimes failed to notice when limiters were retained for new searches or lost during a search. The students also stated that there is a lack of resources that provide help or guidance concerning the use of Unisearch.

Information literacy is a concept that has been widely discussed in a college setting for a long time. Many studies discuss possible definitions and outlooks on information literacy, as well as the importance of developing methods to advance this concept. Despite this, little research have been published which discuss how Swedish college libraries define and teach information literacy on a national level. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview on how Swedish college libraries teach information literacy by looking at their websites and the services they provide to students. A content analysis was used to do this. The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education by the Association of College& Research Libraries has been used to define information literacy in a college setting and to analyze the content found on the websites. The findings show that a majority of Swedish college libraries provide a large amount of web- based services regarding information literacy to their students. Differences do exist, especially between public and private schools, but they use similar tools for teaching information literacy and their content is similar as well, indicating they have similar views on what a student needs to learn in order to be considered information literate.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the opinions of the students of Linköping University regarding the role of the university library in their learning process. The study addresses the student’s expectations and satisfaction regarding the library services. The questions we seek to answer are: What are the students’ conceptions of Linköping University Library as a part of their learning process? What expectations do the students have regarding Linköping University Library? Does the library fulfil the students’ expectations? In what way has the library’s pedagogical ambition reached the students? What are the students’ opinions about the user education? The study is based on a web survey complemented with interviews. The theoretical framework focuses on different theories on service quality and marketing. The results of the study show that the students’ attitudes towards the library are related to their subjects of study and the pedagogical approaches of the programs. The students within The Health Sciences Faculty use the services more frequently and have more positive expectations compared to the students within The Faculty of Science and Engineering. The students of The Arts and Science Faculty use the library services more frequently than the students within The Faculty of Science and Engineering but more rarely than the students within The Faculty of Health Sciences. Most of the students, who are library users, are satisfied or more than satisfied with the services and have very positive conceptions of the librarians and their professional knowledge. / Uppsatsnivå: D

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Examensarbete.

This Bachelor thesis studies the use of student employees at academic libraries, a subject that has been paid little attention in Swedish library and information science. The aim is to contribute with an increased knowledge and deeper understanding of how the work of student employees can be understood in relation to the library’s quality and accessibility. The main questions examine underlying causes for staffing with students, their tasks, the consequences that staffing with student employees might bring, and how the results of the above questions can be understood in relation to the library profession in the academic library. The method used is semistructured interviews, five of which were individual interviews with library management, and one which was a focus group interview with student employees. The interviews are analyzed in relation to earlier research and Andrew Abbotts theory of professions. The result shows that the underlying causes for using students to staff the library is foremost a willingness from the library’s side to offer generous openings hours, in combination with economical aspects. As the amount and character of reference questions are fairly low and don’t require the attention of a librarian, neither library management nor student employees see the work done by the student staff as a threat to the quality of the library’s service. However, the result indicate different views on how the use of student employees might affect the library profession and leads to a discussion concerning whether the work at the information desk is to be seen as part of the profession in academic libraries.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to gainknowledge in how some Swedish university librariesexpresses their work regarding web based servicesfor distance learners via activity documents andwebb pages. A qualitative content analysis isconducted to investigate this. The empirical materialconsists of nineteen different documents and elevenselected parts of websites related to eleven differentuniversity libraries. The results show that there is avariation in how and to what degree differentuniversity libraries expresses their services todistance learners. Three main themes emerge fromthe content: ”the electronic library resources”, ”thevirtual library room” and ”the librarian's pedagogicalrole”, all in different ways connected to distancelearners. The results is discussed based on “thetheory of transactional distance”. The principalfindings is that the libraries expresses greatenthusiasm for digital development and web basedservices. Some in more explicit ways and some inmore implicit ways. Based on the findings from thisstudy and from the previous research and literatureon the subject, the conclusion is that it is notpossible to completely distinguish the distancestudents' needs from other students and it is notentirely possible to distinguish the role of theuniversity library in a psysical or a virtualenvironment.