The public library as meeting place has been discussed and articulated for sometime. Social aspects are considered and the public library is referred to as the third place or the great good place as defined by Oldenburg (1989). Andersson and Skot-Hansen (1994) found in a study that the local library did function as a meeting place in the community and the concept of the public library as a social center was created. This study examine the concept of the public library as meeting place and the meanings of it. By conducting a discourse analysis the use of the concept in some Swedish governmental investigations was inquired. Koselleck did talk about concepts as containers of both the past and the future, carriers of memories and expectations. The concept of the public library as meeting place, does it mean the same today as it has meant in history? Are there any leads in the historical documents which could help us understand the use of the concept? A Foucauldian perspective is applied and used as theoretical foundation. The study found very small differences of the meaning of the concept over time, but how the concept was used did differ the more. For some periods of time the concept has hardly been used at all, and the social aspects of the library was overlooked.