The aim of this bachelor thesis Digital Inclusion – An Interview Study with Public and School Librarians on Work to Reduce the Digital Divide is to examine how the democratic task takes shape in public and school librarians’ work to strengthen citizens’ digital inclusion. The research questions are: How do public and school librarians work to support citizens’ digital inclusion? What challenges do public and school librarians experience in this work? How do public and school librarians describe the digital divide? Three themes are in focus: An Active Citizenship, Working for Digital Inclusion and The Digital Divide. Within library and information science this bachelor thesis mainly relates to information practices where media and information literacy (MIL) is studied but also to cultural policy when the democratic role of public and school libraries is examined. A sociocultural perspective is used as a theoretical approach and a few of its concepts – social practices, tools and appropriation – are used as analytical tools. Van Dijk’s cumulative and recursive model of successive kinds of access to digital technologies is used as a structure. The method used is semi-structured interviews with six librarians, whereof three public librarians and three school librarians. The results show that digital tools are significant to public and school librarians’ work strengthening digital inclusion in its users. While school librarians mainly focus on instruction to increase student’s skills concerning digital competence, public librarians focus more on developing skills concerning user’s digital everyday life although MIL goals are also in effect. Activities for learning show that public and school librarians use different approaches but all stress the importance to connect activities to student needs and realities. The professional role is prominent when working for digital inclusion. Relinquishing the role of the expert means that shared learning opportunities can occur which is beneficial for both librarians and users. Regulatory documents such as the curriculum are considered important tools by most of the librarians. Some mutual challenges for the librarians are lack of interest or competence in the digital aspects of the job, lack of time, fear and insecurities related to digital technologies and tools causing users to feel ashamed. While school librarians are challenged by teachers who are inaccessible and students who are overly confident about their competencies, public librarians are challenged by marketing and limitations in what they can and cannot help users with. The librarians observe how the digital divide manifests itself: all users have shortcomings with digital competencies that prevent them from becoming active citizens in society. School librarians claim that students in general are considered more knowledgeable about technical tools such as computers and smartphones but in fact they lack competencies outside their frame of reference. Public librarians claim users are unable to perform daily tasks and that many lack access to technical tools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-100784 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Lagström, Hannah, Mattsson, Ingela |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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