”Det är en styrka att äga flera språk” : En studie om synen på folkbibliotekets mångspråksarbete i två bibliotekstidskrifter

Sammanfattning: The aim of this bachelor thesis is to find how multilingual activities placed in public libraries are described in journals that are addressed to professionals in the library field. Questions posed in this study are: - What opportunities multilingual activities in public libraries are considered to have in a multicultural society?- Which problems in the society these activities are considered to be able to solve? Integration theory of Hans Ingvar Roth (2005) and his concepts of positive and negative distance and proximity is used as a theoretical background for this study. A qualitative content analysis is used as a method for analysis of the empirical material that consist of articles published in two library journals Biblioteksbladet and Bibliotek i samhälle. Results of the study indicate that according to the journals public libraries are seen as places that have benefits for supporting creation of positive distance and proximity between different groups in the society. Multilingual activities at the library are therefore about on the one hand integration promotion and support of learning of the Swedish language and on the other hand, the preservation of different native languages and the linguistic and cultural heritage.