Panorama das bibliotecas escolares da rede pública do município de Touros do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The school library is an important device of Librarianship, as well as a fundamental part in the constitution of schools that responsibly aim, above all, at the intellectual, informational, cultural, and social formation of their students. It is a fundamental tool that should be available as a support for the students. With the intention of outlining a panorama in which the school libraries are insert in the city of Touros in Rio Grande do Norte, this research had as its general objective to analyze the school libraries of the public system of the city. To meet the general objective, the specific objectives were: discuss the importance of school libraries in the educational and social development of students; and highlight the importance of the school librarian in the school library space; identify the number of public schools in the city of Touros and identify the resources (physical space, collection, computers with internet access, cataloging and organization of the collection, services and activities, and human resources) that the library has to serve its public, relating them to the parameters of the Grupo de estudos em Biblioteca Escolar (GEBE) of the Universidade federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and whether they develop social activities to encourage reading. The study is characterized as an applied research, being exploratory and descriptive, fitting into a qualitative/quantitative approach. The technique used for data collection was the questionnaire, built according to GEBE's evaluation and planning instrument. The sample collected through the questionnaire was 14 responses from principals of public schools in the city. In conclusion, it was possible to verify the absence of libraries in most of the schools participating in the research, going against the Lei nº 12.244/2010; it was verified the absence of librarians in the libraries and none of them even reach the full basic level of the indicators proposed by GEBE, as well as do not develop activities to encourage reading.