This thesis deals with questions about competences and qualities that librarians in public libraries find that they need to be qualified suppliers of literature (books and magazines). Our aim is to problematize the competence of the profession in relation to promoting literature, knowledge in literature and reading habits. We want to know what librarians themselves think about their own competences when it comes to supplying and promoting literature. Does it have to be a leisure interest or do they get the possibility to read during working hours? What do librarians think it means to be a qualified promotor of literature and how do they acquire the right competence? Do they believe that their competence corresponds with the occupational requirements? How much of their knowledge about literature and promoting literature comes from personal interest and commitment? We primarily used the theories about competence by Per-Erik Ellström. One of the theories is the one of implicit and explicit knowledge. We also used Daniel Goleman’s theories about emotional competence. We interviewed six librarians that all work daily with literature promotion. We found that our informants are all competent and very dedicated to their work and that they possess many of the competences that Goleman call emotional. But they do spend a lot of their free time on work. We think it would be useful with more time for librarians to read books and develop their competence at work. It would also be useful with a common strategy when it comes to literature promotion and also a common and general description on what ‘knowledge in literature’ really means.