The Competences of Multi-language Librarians

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to gain greater knowledgeabout some multi-language librarians’ perception of theircompetences in the library activities that are conductedtowards people with other mother tongues than Swedish, inwhat way these competences are gained and whichcompetences they miss. The method that is used to answerthe research questions in the study is semi-structuredinterviews with four public librarians who mainly work withmulti-language activities. Lundmark’s competence model isused together with theory of the competence term to analyzethe collected data. The results that can be drawn is that themulti-language librarians in this study consider manydifferent competences to be needed in the profession, but thatthe formal education, language skills, ability to conductsurrounding analysis, personal and social competences arementioned as very important. The librarians described theirwork tasks and responsibilities as varying, which results in ademand of certain competences. The professionalcompetence is mainly obtained via university studies and canbe updated through both formal and non-formal education.Strategic competence can be further developed throughtraditional courses and regional or local competencedevelopment efforts but also through individual initiatives asnews coverage. Everyone possesses personal and socialcompetences in some form, and these competences are oftendeveloped through experiences in a person’s personal andprofessional life. The different competences are not separatedfrom each other but overlapping and completing each other