Impactos sociais da COVID-19: caso da na Biblioteca Comunitária de Emaús em Natal Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The Coronavirus pandemic devastated the world and reached its peak in 2020. It caused social, political and economic impacts as well s changes in libraries, which are social institutions focused on the organization, treatment and dissemination of information. The objective of this study is to analyse community libraries. It considers scholarly work such as articles present in scientiffic publications and a study case regarding the Community Library of Emmaus in Parnamirim in the State of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. The study analyses the impacts of the pandemic on the dissemination of culture and literature in this library. The specific objectives are: to highlight the importance of the community library and social impact in the environment in which it is inserted; contextualize the difficulties faced with the limitations caused by the Pandemic and draw a parallel between the years 2016 to 2021, highlighting the execution of activities before and after the Coronavirus pandemic. The methodological procedures consisted of a bibliographical and exploratory research, with a qualitative approach instrumentalized by participant observation considering the Years of 2016 to 2021. The study pointed out major transformations in today's society, from the perspective of information access to information in Community libraries. The research highlights the need for studies that more significantly discuss the context of these important institutions, their social character and the changes resulting from the pandemic period, as well as the current moment of “post” pandemic. Based on the studies carried out, the scenario of Reading practises and the context of community libraries and their changes in the face of current reality. Data collection evidenced the growth of publications of articles about academic libraires whilst Community libraries had fewer occurances with predominance in the time span from 2012-2017 with 166, 56, 80 and 17 articles published respectively. In the case of the Emmaus Community Library, it was possible to verify the importance of public policies related to culture in the midst of the pandemic period and how this impacted and benefited the management of the cultural association and its library.