A biblioteca universitária como fomentadora da leitura literária: um estudo de caso no Sistema de Bibliotecas da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Reader training is a more recurrent theme in Education and Literature, but in Library Science and Information Science it seems to be restricted to school libraries. In turn, the themes of information mediation, cultural mediation and reading mediation have appeared in academic publications, mainly related to community libraries. Another type of library, university libraries, needs to discuss further its social role in terms of the dimensions of mediation, in particular, literary mediation, which can be understood as a form of reading mediation within a broader concept of mediation cultural. We believe in the potential of the university library as a place to promote the practice of literary reading through mediation actions. In particular, authors such as Rasteli, Almeida Júnior, Sanches e Rio, Nunes and Cavalcante, Perrotti and Pieruccini, among others, are called into the theoretical framework. This research is based on the application of a questionnaire aimed at the profile of the academic community regarding the behavior and habits of literary reading, as well as the uses they make of libraries. Furthermore, it seeks to answer how the libraries that are part of the Library System of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte could promote access to literary reading for their academic community. It was also considered extremely important to listen to library managers, so a structured interview was carried out with the librarians of the libraries that have the largest number of literary collections: the central unit and seven other sectors. Among the main results, it was recorded that more than half of the sample are seen as readers; they were reading literary books at the time of the research; they really like reading; they don’t tend to buy literary books frequently; make use of libraries for academic purposes (academic books and study); lack of time was the biggest impediment to using libraries; the majority do not use the library to borrow literary collections; never requested the purchase of literary books for libraries; The exhibition of books in the library and the use of social networks remain for users as the main strategies for promoting the libraries' literary collection. The librarians interviewed consider themselves literary readers, although the majority were not reading at the time of the research. The conceptual understanding of literary mediation left something to be desired, being a practice far from the librarians of the library system, with one exception. Problems were highlighted for this practice no to come to fruition, although everyone recognizes the importance of literary mediation for the community. In the end, a set of actions was proposed to encourage literary and mediation reading in the search for intellectual growth and a fuller and more civic-minded formation of the academic community.