M tet mellan folkbibliotek och invandrare

Using new institutional theory and discourse theory this article discusses different norms and values that may affect the encounter between the public library and the user. It also focuses on the problematical in the characterisation of this encounter. The background to why I find these questions important to discuss is that they are related to my research project in which I plan to study the picture of public libraries as it is reproduced in mass media. The norms the institution hold may affect this picture and the reverse may also be true - the picture of public libraries in the mass media may have an impact on institutional norms. The discussions in the article show that institutional norms regulate the behaviors of both librarians and users, not least in the way users are categorized and talked about by the institution as well as in Library and Information Science.