"Vi är inga tankeläsare än..."
En kvalitativ studie av bibliotekspersonals upplevelser av mötet med icke svensktalande användare på folkbibliotek
This bachelor?s thesis purpose is to examine how library staff experiences the meeting with non-Swedish speaking users of public libraries, and how they solve different situations. Today there is not much research on this subject but we find these questions important to study because we think it is good to be aware of the situations that can arise and discuss how to solve any problems. To have a basis for this qualitative study we conducted group interviews with library staff, where they are asked about their experiences with non-Swedish speaking users. In the analysis the results of the interviews are compared to previous research and related to communication theory, which is the theoretical framework for this study. In order to clarify how the barriers for communication affect the meeting a barrier model is applied.After the analysis a discussion follows, where the term ?non-Swedish speaking? is reasoned about, as well as the question whether it is possible to deal with all user groups equally. Finally the conclusions are presented. Our findings are among others that meeting with non-Swedish speaking users where the library staff has difficulties with understanding their intentions occur every day. Many of the informants believe that language can create barriers, which can lead to a meeting of poor quality. Body language is considered a great asset in communication when the verbal language is not enough. Additional solutions may be to cooperate with colleagues or other users in the library, but it is also important to be imaginative and flexible to make the communication work and to make the experience of the meeting as good as possible.