The municipality of Falkenberg is a result of a unification of several smaller municipalities in 1971, each one with a small library. This left Falkenberg with an unusual large amount of smaller branch libraries. The object of this thesis is to describe and try to understand the political conflicts that have erupted during the period 1971-1994. Through a case study containing press clippings from the local newspaper, different reports, political meeting protocols, a historical background of the library and a study of library specific norms and regulations I can create an image of the heated debate. The participants in this debate can be divided into politicians and civil servants and the conflict circles round the fact that from an economical perspective, there is not enough budget to keep all the small, local libraries. There is a noticeable rift between the librarian and the politician opinions, but also within the group of libraryworkers, depending on where they are stationed, the head library or a branch library. Through different theoretical approaches; economical, organizational and linguistic, I try to understand why the situation has been almost static during the thirteen years I investigate in the case. The answer might lie in how the participants are protecting their preserves, by proving their political or professional identity through language. / Uppsatsnivå: D