Multilingual websites? : A survey of webmasters at publiclibraries

The aim of this study was to examine to what extent, and how, multilingual information is made accessible on the websites of Swedish municipal libraries. In particular, wefocused on assessing access to foreign languages on the websites, and on identifying the criteria used when choosing these languages. The thesis also aimed to outline which problems, if any, that arise when providing multilingual information on these websites. The analysis was based on theories concerning websites and multilingualism. We analysed the responses to the survey through the concepts of assimilation and diversity. The method used was aquantitative web-based survey addressed to webmasters at 43 Swedish public libraries, in municipalities with a high percentage of foreign-born citizens. The study indicates that economic resources, time, the websites’ design and the lack of language skills among library staff limit the development of multilingual websites. The findings show that a majority of the libraries only to a certain extent map their targetaudience. The webmasters base their work on the principle of every citizen’s equal right to participation. The main finding is that the websites are generally not accessible to non-Swedish speakers, including speakers of the national minority languages. This contradicts the principle of everybody’s equal right of access to public libraries and the information they provide