The aim of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of how the public library’s mission towards foreign-born users in Sweden has reformulated and developed through time. This is done by a comparative study on official texts from the 1970s and the 2010s. The thesis is based on a discourse analytical perspective and is focused on how the texts are describing foreign-born users as a target group, and what is described as the main objective towards these particular users. The analysis also opens up for a discussion on the role of the public library in the development of a multicultural society. The empirical material consists of three official texts from each decade, that has been commissioned by different institutions with influence in the field. The results show that the source material from the 1970s is characterized by the use of the word “invandrare” (in English immigrant), and an immigrant discourse where the immigrant is defined based on their perceived deviation from Swedish majority society. The library’s main mission towards these users described as providing books, newspapers and magazines in the immigrant’s native languages. In the source material from the 2010s there is a wider range of words being used to refer to the group. The most frequently used is the word “nyanländ” (in English roughly translated to newcomer). This reflects the increasing focus on individuals which recently has immigrated and their information need during their first years in the new country. In the texts from the 2010s it is evident that the library sees itself as a tool for integration. One of the main conclusions from the analysis is that while the 1970s texts are focused on the foreign-born users cultural and linguistic distinctiveness, the texts from the 2010s see adaption to Swedish society as a primal objective. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-484043 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Ahlstrand, Ellinor |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 860 |
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