Librarians work with integration and diversity : The practical profession in relation to documents regarding laws and guidelines

The library is a place to meet other individuals and exchange information. This study is connected to the exchange of information between individuals and groups from varying cultures and backgrounds in an intercultural setting – the library. The library have a set of laws and guidelines they should follow which lead to the question of whether they do or not? Furthermore, in unison with the question raised above, this study was conducted to research the connections, differences and diversities within and between discourses connected to the library. In order to possess a greater knowledge regarding laws and guidelines a library manifest and the Swedish library law was examined. Additionally, two discourses were constructed after thorough and meticulous reading, one of theory, containing laws and guidelines while the other discourse was of practical work derived from the statements of librarians through interviews. The analysis was split into two parts and done with critical discourse analysis, derived from Fairclough, and rational choice-theory as tools. During the first analysis three different themes were identified and brought forward to be used as the basis. The results from the first analysis formed two other prominent themes used in the second analysis. After the analysis was conducted and the material thoroughly inspected and interpreted the study arrived at its final conclusions. The result showed, among other things, a great lack of implementation between the two discourses and specifically so in the implementation of guidelines from the theoretical discourse in the practical discourse.