Ferramentas aplicáveis à mediação do acesso, busca e aprendizagem do uso de fontes de informação em bibliotecas universitárias

Abstract

The rapid progress of Science and Technology in recent decades coupled with the advent of information and communication technologies has led to tremendous growth in the volume of information produced and made available, with replacement and diversity of formats. Therefore, on the one hand, there has been the expansion in the supply of information sources by commercial producers, scientific and institutional facilities with great access to information, as well as the changing behavior of users who have become more virtual and independent as they go less to the library to carry out their search activities, location and obtain information and documents; on the other hand, the lack of the users' competence or difficulty in dealing with these new information resources. Against this changing background, it is important that users and librarians play new roles. The user must be able to be autonomous in the information universe, and the librarian should play the role of a mediator. It is identified as the problem of this research that a large number of existing sources of information available in the area of Science and Technology in its various media and types is often an impediment for users to identify, be aware of and access them independently, efficiently and effectively. Thus, the aims of this research are: to investigate and identify trends for the application of tools to mediate the processes of searching, accessing and learning the use of information sources in academic libraries; to consider proposals in the use of tools for online bibliographic databases and suggest tool tips, their features and capabilities of their use that may be adopted by academic libraries. The methodology used was exploratory research and the method adopted was the content analysis through a quantitative and qualitative approach, including the collection of specific data regarding the availability of tools to mediate the use of sources of information on websites of university libraries. The study sample consisted of 24 libraries selected from the best national and international universities (Webometrics Ranking of World s Universities, World University Rankings 2011-2012, Índice Geral de Cursos). The results identified a general overview of how university libraries are conducting the mediation of information sources, especially in relation to bibliographic databases, and considering the tools that represent an incremental innovation in how libraries can play their roles as mediators, encouraging the development of competence in information from their users and providing tools for the process of knowledge generation and thereby help users to make the best use of technology and information sources in their academic and professional activities.