Article

_{DOI: 10.22167/2675-6528-20220024}

^{E&S 2022,3: e20220024}

Felipe Mussarelli e Maria Cecilia Perantoni Fuchs Ferraz

The internet was created with the intention of developing a method for transmitting academic or scientific information between researchers from different research centers, creating a local communication network. Furthermore, the internet broke down the geographical barrier of information and its improvement could be perceived in various areas of human activity, among them, libraries^[1].

Considered an antagonist of Libraries, due to the excess of non-scientific information and the lack of credibility in the information found^[2], the internet has nevertheless become an essential part of libraries. The initial fear of losing ground to the facilities provided by the internet gave way to the opportunity for modernizing the services offered by libraries. However, in addition to the modernization and improvement of the services offered, the adoption of the internet by libraries has brought about an expansion of these services, visibility, and markets, as well as improvements in institutional image, reduction in communication costs, and the possibility of online transactions^[3].

Human relations today occur immersed in the internet and a good part of daily activities are carried out through it. In this sense, Dziekaniak et al.^[4] agree that the non-adoption of the internet can imply the disappearance of a library, among other problems, due to the lack of users.

Besides the change in user behavior, another decisive factor for the adoption of online services has been the popularization of distance education courses, whose offered vacancies surpassed for the first time in Brazil, in 2018¹, the number of vacancies offered for in-person courses. The Brazilian Association of Distance Education (Abed) also registered an increase of 17% in the number of enrolled students from 2017 to 2018².

Faced with this popularization, and seeking to facilitate access to the basic teaching bibliography for distance learning courses, Federal Decree 9.235/2017^[5] and Ordinances No. 315 and 330^{[6], [7]} which regulated it, brought some innovations, including the possibility of an academic collection consisting entirely of digital books. In other words, the decree formalizes a movement that had already been gaining ground in universities and academic libraries (use of e-books), allowing their collections to be mixed or purely digital, in line not only with modern societal habits but also with the needs brought about by the consolidation of distance learning.

Added to this factor is the global pandemic that began on December 31, 2019, when, in Wuhan (People’s Republic of China), the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) appeared, which later became known as COVID-19. With acute respiratory syndromes as its main symptoms, the coronavirus arrived in Brazil on February 26, 2020, gradually placing the country under quarantine^[8]. With the impediment of in-person use of schools and, consequently, libraries, virtual activities had to gain prominence.

The adoption of mixed or completely digital collections brings with it some challenges that academic libraries must overcome, among them, the construction of a coherent digital environment, in which all the necessary information for users to navigate freely is arranged and organized in the best possible way^[9]. A well-designed “website” – or simply site – can optimize various services offered by the library, in addition to providing a pleasant experience for its users, so that, increasingly, their interaction with the desired study materials can occur without the need for direct contact or mediation by a librarian, allowing them to dedicate themselves to more strategic functions of the information centers.

Castro^[10] explains that the library and its librarians need to keep pace with the growing production of information, being able to manage information units by uniting technical knowledge with new technologies, so that this union creates an accessible environment for its users. Thus, the library must use technological resources that improve and facilitate access to and dissemination of information.

The post-Covid era will bring significant changes to education, in the sense that there will no longer be room to categorize what is distance education or in-person education, as education mediated by digital educational technologies will be something natural^[11]. In this sense, more than a choice, the adaptation of libraries to the new normal will be an obligation.

The universe of libraries and information services was transformed by the consolidation of what became known as the Information and Knowledge Society and by the consolidation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Prior to this phenomenon, the development of collections, that is, the library’s holdings, focused more on the quantity of items and not necessarily on their quality. However, these transformations shifted the focus of library and information service evaluations to the products offered and services provided, with the holdings or collection being just one of the criteria evaluated. Thus, the available ICTs, as well as what the library does with them, begin to gain prominence^[12].

According to Bell^[13], web pages available on the web have two primary functions: to inform and to interact. A “website” dedicated to informing must effectively organize a large amount of content into documents and simplify navigation for users interested in these documents or information. In this sense, the quality or value of a “website” lies in its ability to organize and provide information quickly and effectively to the user seeking it.

Gomes and Santos^[14] explain that when seeking focus in the context of university libraries, it is necessary to highlight that, essential in the construction of knowledge, they must pay attention to the constant need to communicate with their users, seeking to inform them about the “state of the art” of their collection, that is, about which themes the collection covers, what their publications are, and what is most current on the researched subjects. It is the library’s role (of its librarians and/or managers) to produce communication or an act of dissemination that enhances and gives visibility to the knowledge produced and that, from this process, is capable of disseminating and allowing access to and use of the information that is responsible for recording this knowledge.

In harmony with what Bell^[13] explains about the purposes of informing and interacting, the initial process of this communication, according to Gomes and Santos^[14], should be the exploration of digital space by libraries, seeking to expose not only their institutional information, but also those that prioritize their collection, products, services, initiatives, and activities related to direct user service. Thus, the use of this digital space would enable the library to inform and stimulate its use, promoting interaction with its interlocutors, that is, its users.

Due to the relevance of the topic in question, it is opportune to explore here some milestones in the transition from physical libraries to what can be called hybrid, digital, and virtual libraries, seeking to contextualize and bring the reader closer to this universe.

The emergence of computing is relatively recent and, according to Marcondes et al.^[15], since 1950, with the adoption of new technologies, libraries began this transition, undergoing significant changes. Marcondes et al.^[15] explain that the advent of the computer made possible the computerization of not only bibliographic lists, but also some managerial activities. Thus, from 1960 onwards, in more developed countries, bibliographic databases capable of being consulted remotely began to be produced. This process in itself already constituted a technological leap, but it was from the 1990s onwards, with the development of the internet, that a more significant advance could be perceived.

This transformation brought with it some process reorganizations, thus resulting in the concern to serve users ever more quickly and efficiently. Thus, possession of the document gives way to access to information. This paradigm shift minimized old limitations in the search for information, such as time and space. Thus, new technologies have complemented collections and services with new formats, leading to new types of libraries, notably digital libraries, commonly called electronic or virtual^[15].

It is worth noting that, in 2009, Cuenca et al.^[2] pointed out the lack of consensus in the literature regarding the understanding of the concepts virtual library, electronic library, and digital library, as it was a new paradigm at the time. However, Anna and Dias^[16] conclude, through a literature review on the subject in question, that Brazilian literature shows a greater preference for the term digital library. It is important to understand that although there was some confusion about the nomenclature of this new library model, today the definitions of virtual and digital libraries seem to gain more significant contours, with the virtual being a library that exists exclusively in the cybernetic environment and the digital being a library that possesses documents in digital format. But this discussion can be left for another time.

Then, according to Marcondes et al.^[15], a concept emerges in the literature that more accurately reflects the transition state of a library that has not yet ceased to be completely traditional (only physical collection), but which also presents characteristics of a digital library to meet the informational needs of the modern user. The hybrid library.

Cuenca et al.^[2] complements that the term hybrid library or “hybrid library” is used in the literature not only to denote libraries in transition (which maintain printed collections while offering online catalogs and electronic informational resources), but also those that are not necessarily undergoing a transition. This would imply that, at some point, both its catalog and its services would cease to be offered physically or in person, becoming exclusively available digitally. In summary, the hybrid library would not be transitioning from one format to another, but rather expanding and diversifying its catalogs and services, which, according to Tammaro and Salarelli^[17], does not necessarily imply the simultaneous presence of diverse media, but the integration of services.

Rowley^[18] explains that some traditional services such as organization, storage, and processing have rapidly developed into digital format, with the traditional card catalog being the first traditional service to be digitized, initially in electronic format and later made available to the public online. Subsequently, other traditional services were improved thanks to the internet, such as the online reservation of physical items. Rowley^[18] complements that initially services were designed for access to information and not content, which means that computerization first enabled access to metadata such as abstract, title, authors, year, and later to the content itself.

With the ever-increasing popularization of the internet and the emergence and consolidation of social networks such as Orkut and Facebook, Generation Google – a term created by Rowlands in 2008 to represent people born from 1993 onwards^[2] – significantly increases the number of users who decide to meet their informational needs quickly through the internet, but not necessarily critically. This movement creates the need for libraries to adapt, which then begin to alter their physical space, increasing the number of computers for consultation and services, adapting to internet networks.

These ICT-driven changes significantly alter the way educational and research institutions work with their publications^[19], both in terms of production and publication, and university libraries are beginning to gather and integrate these digital collections by centralizing them and delivering them to their users. Furthermore, some digital collections end up being driven by governmental projects such as the Capes Periodicals Portal, launched in November 2000^[20].

Anna and Dias^[16] complement that the reflexes caused by the ever more intense use of the web and digital technologies have brought about changes in society as a whole, and this process encompasses not only users, but institutions from the most diverse spheres of society. Thus, the permanence of the library and librarians is essentially linked to how quickly one can keep up with innovations and effectively meet the needs of the modern user.

Therefore, the requirement for transformation and adaptation is not restricted only to libraries and their librarians or managers, but, as it is a social paradigm, it falls upon all social instances. Furthermore, being competitive and remaining attractive in a world driven by ICTs goes beyond adaptation, also involving the ability to seize opportunities and offer something new and different that promotes the engagement of users or consumers of products and services, especially informational^[19].

In this sense, access to informational products and services offered by libraries – whether hybrid, virtual, or digital – occurs through their internet pages, that is, their “websites”. Thus, more than informing the modern user, a library’s website, as well as its librarians and collaborators, need to invite them to be part of a system of reliable information and differentiated services regarding the construction of knowledge, whether scientific, popular, or cultural.

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¹Of the 13.5 million places offered for higher education courses in Brazil, 7.1 million were for distance learning courses. Source: https://educacao.uol.com.br/noticias/2019/09/19/pela-1-vez-vagas-no-ensino-superior-a-distancia-superam-as-no-presencial.htm?cmpid=copiaecola

²Source: https://noticias.r7.com/educacao/ensino-a-distancia-tem-9-milhoes-de-estudantes-e-cresce-no-brasil-26112019

References

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Como citar

Mussarelli, F.; Ferraz, M.C.P.F. A modernização da gestão de bibliotecas e os impactos na disseminação da informação. Revista E&S. 2022; 3: e20220024.

Sobre os autores

Felipe Mussarelli, Doutor em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade, Araras, SP, Brasil.

Maria Cecilia Perantoni Fuchs Ferraz, Doutora em Ciências Biológicas, Piracicaba, SP, Brasil.

Editorado por: Edson Pereira da Mota

Link para download: https://cms.revistaes.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/27.pdf