diff --git a/scraperwiki/__init__.py b/scraperwiki/__init__.py
index 858cfbd..b5ba542 100644
--- a/scraperwiki/__init__.py
+++ b/scraperwiki/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 '''
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
-from .utils import scrape, pdftoxml, status
+from .utils import scrape, pdftoxml, status, swimport
 from . import utils
 from . import sql
 
diff --git a/scraperwiki/utils.py b/scraperwiki/utils.py
index 0256c9c..e612b1c 100644
--- a/scraperwiki/utils.py
+++ b/scraperwiki/utils.py
@@ -80,3 +80,6 @@ def status(type, message=None):
     r = requests.post(url, data={'type': type, 'message': message})
     r.raise_for_status()
     return r.content
+
+def swimport(scrapername):
+    return __import__(scrapername)