The year 2000 the Sami languages were recognized as official minority languages in Sweden, which among other things mean that there is a government decision to provide the means for their further existence. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the role of the Swedish public libraries in revitalizing the South Sami language. This is an important topic to address, since the South Sami language faces serious threats today. Furthermore, the role of the public libraries in revitalizing the minority languages due to the Swedish engagement is not yet defined. The study focuses on Jämtlands läns bibliotek, a choice based on the fact that this library is located in a region with a large South Sami population. In the light of existing policy documents, and up-to-date research results dealing with the South Sami language situation, we made an interview study based on three distinct questions at issue. These deals with the responsibility of the library, the present work at the library, and the future work of the library. In answering these questions at issue, we made eight interviews with strategically selected persons; four librarians and four Samis. Since there is no established library praxis regarding the routines to revitalize threatened languages in Sweden, the purpose was to let the informants themselves contribute to the definition of the phenomenon’s at hand. Our conceptual frameworks were Kenneth Hyltenstam´s theories on language processes, Dorte Skot-Hansen´s & Marianne Andersen´s categorization of the different functions of the library, and Mikael Stigendal´s perspective on the librarian’s role in integration.   Our results show that there is a gap between what the librarians perceived as immediate demand, and the real needs of the South Sami group; a gap which the library in the light of it´s educating commission has a responsibility to bridge. The results also show that the library´s work today concerning this matter is inadequate, and that the library receives a low level of trust from the Sami informants. However, the results also show a mutual interest in cooperation, in order to investigate possible and constructive ways forward. Crucial to successful results showed to be the integration of South Sami competence in the overall resources of the library, and to contribute to the normalization of the Sami presence in the region in other ways. / Folkbiblioteken och de nationella minoriteterna

<p>The year 2000 the Sami languages were recognized as official minority languages in Sweden, which among other things mean that there is a government decision to provide the means for their further existence. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the role of the Swedish public libraries in revitalizing the South Sami language. This is an important topic to address, since the South Sami language faces serious threats today. Furthermore, the role of the public libraries in revitalizing the minority languages due to the Swedish engagement is not yet defined. The study focuses on Jämtlands läns bibliotek, a choice based on the fact that this library is located in a region with a large South Sami population. In the light of existing policy documents, and up-to-date research results dealing with the South Sami language situation, we made an interview study based on three distinct questions at issue. These deals with the responsibility of the library, the present work at the library, and the future work of the library. In answering these questions at issue, we made eight interviews with strategically selected persons; four librarians and four Samis. Since there is no established library praxis regarding the routines to revitalize threatened languages in Sweden, the purpose was to let the informants themselves contribute to the definition of the phenomenon’s at hand. Our conceptual frameworks were Kenneth Hyltenstam´s theories on language processes, Dorte Skot-Hansen´s & Marianne Andersen´s categorization of the different functions of the library, and Mikael Stigendal´s perspective on the librarian’s role in integration.</p><p> </p><p>Our results show that there is a gap between what the librarians perceived as immediate demand, and the real needs of the South Sami group; a gap which the library in the light of it´s educating commission has a responsibility to bridge. The results also show that the library´s work today concerning this matter is inadequate, and that the library receives a low level of trust from the Sami informants. However, the results also show a mutual interest in cooperation, in order to investigate possible and constructive ways forward. Crucial to successful results showed to be the integration of South Sami competence in the overall resources of the library, and to contribute to the normalization of the Sami presence in the region in other ways.</p> / Folkbiblioteken och de nationella minoriteterna

The study examines the recountings of the work of five librarians at four public libraries in smaller municipalities in southern Sweden with their assignment of national minorities. Reports have shown that there are shortcomings in many libraries with regard to the fulfillment of goals described in the Library Act’s writing about national minorities. The study aims to investigate what activities representatives of libraries recount they work with, how they reason about national minorities’ visibility in the library space and how they view the library’s minority policy role. The method used is semi-structured interviews. The material is analyzed thematically. The theory guiding the study is R. Audunson et. als theory of libraries as a meeting place and its ability to bridge gaps in society. In the librarians’ recountings it appears that they primarily work with libraries as being low intensive meeting places which includes collections, expositions and visibility in the library space. Some of them work with events that can be described as high intensive activities. The results of the study cautiously suggests that it may not be sufficient to solely serve as low intensive meeting places in same ways as before in order to break old traditions of not having prioritized national minorities in the past. The study contributes with descriptions of librairians’ experiences of and thoughts on the subject at a time when national minority policies are being raised and the results may provide insights on how additional incentives for public libraries can be designed.

The National Library of Sweden Kungliga Biblioteket has been assigned by the Swedish government to establish resource libraries for the Swedish national minorities. The library of the Finnish Institute in Stockholm is the resource library for the national minority Swedish Finns (also known as Sweden Finns) and the national minority language Finnish. This study examines how a collaboration between the Finnish Institute’s Library and public libraries can support the public libraries in their efforts to pay specific attention to, protect and promote the national minority Swedish Finns and the Finnish language, according to the Swedish Library Act and the Act on National Minorities and Minority Languages and Sweden’s minority policy goals. The theories guiding the study are R. Putnam’s theory of social capital and A. Vårheim’s and R. Audunson’s et. al. theories of public libraries as places creating social capital. The data was collected through qualitative interviews with seven librarians, representing both the Finnish Institute's Library and four public libraries in designated municipality level administrative areas for Finnish. The results show that public libraries could enhance their services and increase social capital of the minority group by cooperating with the Finnish Institute’s Library and make use of its resources and knowledge of the target group. This could support public libraries in paying more attention to children, young people, elderly people and also those in need of Finnish language revitalisation. Though the public libraries participating in this study had less cooperation with the resource library than expected, they’ve got much support from their municipalities and were more active in their library services for the Swedish Finns than many other public libraries in Sweden.

Den här uppsatsen undersöker om styrdokumenten och förskolornas arbetsmetoder har stöd i forskningen vad gäller språkkunskaper, språkutveckling och kognition hos tvåspråkiga barn. I uppsatsen presenteras en litteraturöversikt för att sammanfatta några forskningsresultat nationellt och internationellt, samt en empirisk studie omfattande fyra kommuner i Uppsala län, där syftet är att undersöka mer konkret hur kommunerna arbetar med modersmålsstöd i förskolorna. En del av uppsatsen undersöker också möjligheten för modersmålsstöd i de nationella minoritetsspråken.Litteraturen visar att mängden input är viktig vad gäller språkkunskaper i allmänhet, samt att risken är stor för språkbyte ifall det inte finns något stöd utifrån för att stötta utvecklingen av ett minoritetsspråk i ett majoritetsspråksamhälle. Resultatet av kommunstudien visar att kommunerna har svårt att följa styrdokumenten fullt ut i fråga om att barn med annat modersmål ska kunna utveckla sitt modersmål. Inputen riskerar att bli väldigt begränsad, så som de undersökta kommunerna arbetar med modersmålsstödet idag.