In our globalized world, providing meaningful resources to linguistically diverse communities in libraries within multicultural societies like Sweden is essential. By engaging directly with librarians, this thesis aims to uncover their perspectives on the essential competencies and skills required for effectively managing multilingual collections and serving diverse communities. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology with an interpretative epistemological approach and a constructionist ontological perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight librarians specializing in managing multilingual collections within public and special libraries in Sweden in April 2024. The data was analyzed based on the concepts of multiculturalism and Parekh's notion of intercultural dialogue using qualitative content analysis with an abductive approach, focusing on themes derived from Overall’s (2009) cultural competence framework and including new themes as they emerged.

According to the analyzed data, librarians are committed to cultural competence, emphasizing the importance of being open and approachable to build good relationships with multilingual community members. However, they identified a lack of direct community engagement and insufficient in-depth knowledge about their patrons. Professional development opportunities and better user assessment tools are seen as essential for improving services. Challenges include a lack of time and funding to enhance services and promotional activities. Increased workplace diversity is viewed as beneficial for cultivating cultural awareness and collaboration. Librarians also expressed the need for clearer guidelines and support to effectively implement multicultural representation in library collections. The study concludes with further research recommendations that could help improve the current state of affairs in the provision of multilingual materials at libraries.