The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how public libraries in sparsely populated areas  work with integration-promoting activities and elucidate how the conditions of the public libraries affect this work. We have applied a qualitative  method in this thesis and the  empirical data were collected through five interviews with library staff from three different public libraries in Västerbotten. We have used thematic analysis to identify codes and themes in the empirical material. Among other things, library staff feel that lack of resources, good collaboration and infrastructure in the local community affect the libraries’ ability to work  towards integration. The study’s results were further analyzed on the basis of Andersson & Skot-Hansen’s theory of the library’s four main functions in order to consider within which  functions libraries work to promote  integration, and in what way the local community influences the work.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how libraries meet the challenges of integrating newcomers. My questions are: • What integration-promoting activities for newcomers are provided by public libraries? • Which other providers collaborate with libraries designing appropriate activities for newcomers? • What challenges do library staff face in integration processes? The method applied in this research is web surveys. Web surveys were sent to 94 town libraries, in five large municipalities. In the analysis concepts such as social capital, inclusion and exclusion were used. Conclusions were that the most common integration promoting activities that libraries offer are language cafés, story time in several languages and help with homework and learning the Swedish language. Cooperation is mostly with volunteer organizations and local authorities to design appropriate activities for newcomers. The survey reveals that coordinating functions, which brings various stakeholders together can be developed.