A literatura afro-brasileira de autoria de mulheres nos acervos das bibliotecas públicas do Brasil

Abstract

The public library is a social and cultural institution responsible for information, organization and dissemination. Its mission to attend the information needs of people who are part of the community, respecting cultural diversity. Thus, the research’s main objective to highlight the importance of the collection development regarding women’s Afro-Brazilian literature in order to demonstrate the presence of their works in Brazilian State Public Libraries collections. The research has the following specific objectives: a) discuss the importance of the public library as a social and cultural diverse institution; b) reflect on the library collection development considering black authors of Afro-Brazilian literature; and, finally, c) diagnose the presence of Afro-Brazilian literary authors in literature in public libraries collections. Before analyzing the presence of these authors of Afro-Brazilian literature, it was necessary to identify which state public libraries provide online collection consultation. Of the libraries, fourteen state public libraries were reached such as the ones in: Alagoas, Bahia, Piauí, Sergipe, Pará, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso, and Brasília (Federal District). The authors were identified through the literafro – Afro-Brazilian Literature Portal, during the months of September and October 2020. Thus, we identified 48 authors and 198 titles of literature books. Through data analysis it was possible to verify that the majority of these women are from the Southeast (31), Northeast (8) and South (6); we also found that the state with the highest number of titles in the collections of public libraries is Rio de Janeiro, with 29 titles; followed by Minas Gerais, 28 titles; São Paulo, 27 titles; and Brasília, with 25 titles in total. The research also revealed that only a few authors appear more frequently in the collections of libraries, they are Carolina Maria de Jesus (in 11 libraries); Eliana Alves Cruz (in 8 libraries); and Cidinha da Silva, Conceição Evaristo, Geni Guimarães and Heloisa Pires Lima each appeared in 6 different libraries. Finally, we conclude that this work represents an expansion in the discussion about collection development of in public libraries, mainly taking into account the cultural diversity and “collections recovery policy” focused on the inclusion of black women writers in their collections.