Informationsteknik och högskolan ? policy och verklighet
The main objective of this thesis is to examine the situation concerning information technology, computers and information resources for university students at a selection of universities, and their libraries, in Sweden. Another objective is to compare this situation to what is stated in policy documents on the subject, and if the size of the university matters regarding resources. The thesis starts with a discussion of several authors, Frank Webster, Paul F. Burton and Lars Qvortrup among others, and their views on the information society. These range from whether we are living in it, are in a transition period or are still in the Industrial Society. The important role of information in today's society is established, as is the necessity of computer literacy for today's students. The methods used in the study are questionnaires and the study of policy documents. The results show differences between the universities regarding the range of information resources made available to the students, the small and medium-sized universities generally have better computer resources. A lack of policy documents was also found, despite the government guidelines for all universities to have them. This lack of documents made a comparison difficult, and it showed no evident connection between poor resources and poor or missing policy statements regarding information resources for students.