Diss. Umeå : Univ., 2004.

The purpose of this master thesis in Library and Information Science is to contribute to the knowledge of the conditions the public libraries have for their integration work — i.e. activities intended for newcomers — from the librarians’ perspective. The participating libraries were located in municipalities with significant refugee reception and a total population under 30 000 residents. Six integration librarians from six public libraries participated in qualitative semistructured interviews, which were analysed with qualitative content analysis and discussed within the theoretic framework of Practice Theory as described by Stephen Kemmis. The results show that public libraries based in smaller municipalities are vulnerable to increase of demands and that their needs of resources and/or relief by additional meeting places and citizen offices increases proportionally. The libraries are dependent of adult educational associations and NGO:s voluntary work to offer demanded activities such as language meetups and IT support. The respondents show a low degree of planning and evaluation in their integration work and few participate in the existing expert network. The most reflecting respondents aim to make all activities inclusive for all visitors. The library economy is characterized by temporary projects. The lack of evaluation and documentation threatens to weaken the position within the municipality and make the libraries subjects to saving measures. New program activities need time to get established, but the respondents believe that the needs will remain when the immigrants are no longer newcomers, which speaks for the need of increased long term planning.