Multilingual facilities in a Swedish library : A Study of Activities, Goals and Provisions of resources

The following thesis will examine how a city library manages its multilingual facilities. I am interested to explore the challenges and problems librarians face, and how the library helps in integration. This has been studied through several qualitative interviews with librarians, major immigrant organization’s representatives who use library multi-language services, as well as steering plans of the city library and international library of Stockholm.The results of the study indicate that the city library has ambitious plans for providing multi-language facilities to people from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The library has multi-lingual literature in more than 60 languages and is trying to reach out to people through a variety of programs including “cultural weeks” and “languages days”. While it is always challenging for the library staff to buy literature in various languages, the library has started to acquire literature by creating user profiles and via a cross-referenced group responsible for such activities.The study also revealed that while user groups were positive about the library’s ambitions for multi-cultural activities, they were critical regarding a lack of acceptable and useful literature in their own languages, especially for children.The analysis method for this study was Roth’s theory of integration. The main aim of the library is to provide a platform for cultural exchanges between people of various ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, these results provided interesting insights if these activities are leading towards a positive vicinity, and distance between them or not.Program: Masterprogram: Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, Digitala bibliotek och informationstjänste