| Popis: |
Societal changes caused by the widespread digitalization of several important public as well as private sectors of everyday life has led to increased demands for digital literacy amongst the general public. Meanwhile, there are several demographic groups that for different reasons are excluded from the digital arena, the elderly especially. The public libraries, leaning on it’s democratic as well as it’s educational mission, has taken widespread action to extenuate the problem through digital inclusion efforts, in particular the cooperation through the Digidel network. The purpose of this thesis is twofold, first we strive to gain knowledge in regards to the users experiences and use of digital technology, second we examine the users experiences of the libraries digital inclusion activities. The theoretical framework applied consisted mainly of Van Dijk & Hackers analysis of the four barriers of the digital divide. As a complement Prenskys digital natives, digital immigrantstheory has also been applied. Four semistructured interviews were conducted with elderly participants of the Digitala första hjälpen program activity at Motala digidelcenter at Motala stadsbibliotek. The results indicate that material access to digital technology is a nonproblem for the participants, and that the technology is used in a variety of ways, although mainly for information seeking and communication purposes. Use of digital technology is considered relatively complex and anxiety inducing, which library guidance help mitigate. Furthermore, the study shows how digital inclusion guidance works both in a problem solving and a competence improving capacity. Lastly our results indicate how appreciated these activities are amongst the participants. |
