Purpose

As part of the EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16–2016-00001 “Museum and Library Development for All” project, a national representative digital literacy survey was conducted in Hungary's public libraries at the end of 2019. The aim of the present study is to provide a deeper analysis of the data collected during the survey to answer the question of the role of gender and age in the development of digital skills amongst librarians working in public libraries. This study was designed to answer the following four research questions: Are there levels of proficiency defined by DigComp 2.1 that are more specific to men or more specific to women? Are there areas of competence and competences that are clearly perceived as stronger or weaker for men or women? Are there areas of competence that are clearly influenced by age and others that are not or only moderately influenced by age? Which competences are clearly age-related, and which are not or only slightly affected by age?

Design/methodology/approach

The main target group of the study were library professionals working in county libraries. The survey, based on the DigComp 2.1 (Gomez et al., 2017) framework, was conducted using an online questionnaire in the form of a self-assessment and explored four levels of digital literacy. A 30-question questionnaire was completed by 1,868 respondents. The sampling procedure was essentially stratified sampling. The large number of respondents and the sampling procedure combined with the representativeness of the sample meant that the results of the survey can be considered as generalisable to the whole Hungarian public library sector.

Findings

Of the five competency areas assessed by the DigComp framework, librarians were found to be most competent in information and data literacy, and least competent in content development, according to the proportion of those with basic skills. 32 percent of women and 22 percent of men working in libraries rated their digital skills as basic, and both groups were weak or less weak in the same skills, with a few exceptions. At the intermediate level, there is a predominance of women. In the information and communication competency areas and in the content development and integrating and re-elaborating digital content in the content creation area, a high proportion of women consider their digital skills to be medium. Relatively few men rate their own competence in these areas as average. They are most likely to have advanced and highly specialised skills. The advanced level in DigComp2.1 implies, in addition to strong digital skills, the willingness and ability to help others, while the highly specialised level requires innovative and creative use of digital technology and knowledge transfer. These top two skill levels are more common amongst men. 34 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women have advanced skills, while 13 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women have highly specialised’s level. The age of librarians has only a minimal influence in certain areas of competence and for certain competences. Skills in the information and data literacy competency area are less age sensitive. For the data management competency, which requires more technological skills, a stronger correlation between age and skill levels is observed, especially for basic and highly specialised skills. In the communication competence area, the youngest age group of librarians has the highest percentage of advanced and the lowest percentage of basic level. The proportion of advanced learners decreases steadily as age groups progress and the proportion of basic learners increases at a similar steady rate. The effect of age on the content creation is much more modest than expected. Age clearly has an impact on the safety competence area. As age increases, the proportion of those at advanced level decreases and the proportion at basic level increases. Age also has a significant effect on the problem-solving competence area. One in two librarians in the 50 and 60s have only basic level skills, compared to one in four in the youngest age group and one in three in the 40s.

Originality/value

Using the DigComp 2.1 framework, a digital competence survey of a whole professional group of library professionals working in public libraries in Hungary was carried out. The study provides new insights into the impact of gender and age as variables on digital competence.

中文翻译：

---

公共图书馆的数字能力格局：研究年龄和性别在数字技能发展中的作用

目的

作为 EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16–2016-00001“全民博物馆和图书馆发展”项目的一部分，2019 年底在匈牙利公共图书馆进行了全国代表性数字素养调查。当前的目标研究的目的是对调查期间收集的数据进行更深入的分析，以回答性别和年龄在公共图书馆工作的图书馆员数字技能发展中的作用问题。本研究旨在回答以下四个研究问题： DigComp 2.1 定义的熟练程度是否有更针对男性的还是更针对女性的？是否存在明显被认为男性或女性更强或更弱的能力领域？是否存在明显受年龄影响的能力领域，以及其他不受年龄影响或仅中等程度影响的能力领域？哪些能力明显与年龄相关，哪些能力不受年龄影响或仅轻微受年龄影响？

设计/方法论/途径

该研究的主要目标群体是在县图书馆工作的图书馆专业人员。该调查基于 DigComp 2.1（Gomez等，2017）框架，采用在线问卷以自我评估的形式进行，探讨了数字素养的四个层次。1,868 名受访者完成了包含 30 个问题的调查问卷。抽样程序本质上是分层抽样。大量的受访者和抽样程序以及样本的代表性意味着调查结果可以被认为适用于整个匈牙利公共图书馆部门。

发现

在 DigComp 框架评估的五个能力领域中，根据具备基本技能的人员比例，图书馆员在信息和数据素养方面能力最强，在内容开发方面能力最差。在图书馆工作的 32% 的女性和 22% 的男性将自己的数字技能视为基本技能，除了少数例外，这两个群体在相同技能上都很弱或较弱。在中级水平上，女性占多数。在信息和通信能力领域以及内容创作领域的内容开发以及整合和重新阐述数字内容方面，很大一部分女性认为她们的数字技能处于中等水平。相对较少的男性认为自己在这些领域的能力处于平均水平。他们最有可能拥有先进且高度专业化的技能。DigComp2.1 的高级水平意味着除了强大的数字技能之外，还意味着帮助他人的意愿和能力，而高度专业化的水平则需要创新和创造性地使用数字技术和知识转移。这两个最高的技能水平在男性中更为常见。34%的男性和27%的女性拥有高级技能，而13%的男性和6%的女性拥有高度专业化的水平。图书馆员的年龄对某些能力领域和某些能力的影响很小。信息和数据素养能力领域的技能对年龄不太敏感。对于需要更多技术技能的数据管理能力，观察到年龄和技能水平之间更强的相关性，特别是对于基本技能和高度专业化的技能。在沟通能力方面，最年轻年龄段的馆员高级水平比例最高，基础水平比例最低。随着年龄组的进步，高级学习者的比例稳步下降，基础学习者的比例以类似的稳定速度增加。年龄对内容创作的影响比预期的要小得多。年龄显然对安全能力领域有影响。随着年龄的增长，高级水平比例下降，基础水平比例上升。年龄对解决问题的能力也有显着影响。50 岁和 60 岁的图书馆员中，有二分之一的人只具备基本水平的技能，而最年轻年龄段的图书馆员为四分之一，40 岁的图书馆员为三分之一。

原创性/价值

使用 DigComp 2.1 框架，对匈牙利公共图书馆工作的图书馆专业人员的整个专业群体进行了数字能力调查。该研究为性别和年龄作为变量对数字能力的影响提供了新的见解。