Mudança de perfil do usuário de bibliotecas: repensando a Biblioteca do Instituto de Ciências Biologicas da UFMG diante das novas tecnologias

Abstract

This study discusses the positive and negative impacts of technological advancement as they affect the library of the UFMG Institute of Biological Sciences today, and the librarian profession as well. During 2013, a construction project was designed, for renovation of the building of the Institute of Biological Sciences - ICB, at Universidade Federal de MinasGerais UFMG. Under this project, the ICB library, namely its collection and the employees who worked therein, were removed from the building, being relocated to the central library´s building. In search of an explanation to this change, the head of the library questioned the architect in charge, and his reply was that paper-format libraries no longerexist, adding that if she might be able to submit a design for an ultramodern library, he would be ready to reassess his decision. Such project was in fact developed and we, employees of that library, are currently waiting for the rearrangement of the physical spacebefore we return. Therefore, modern ideas are now required, which must be implemented in the new ICB library. Comparatively with other libraries to which modern ideas have already been implemented, the ICB library appears to be long overdue in relation to technology, which generates disinterest on the part of users. Technological changes introduced over the past decades have caused major changes to our society and thesechanges were mainly concerned with the way information is absorbed. As we see it today, television watching, and newspaper reading practices have been greatly changed by the internet, bearing a big impact on the form of teaching / learning. Accordingly, these behavioral changes have equally affected library users, since the way of absorbing information contained in scientific books and journals have changed widely in recent years. Nowadays, the user can even find all the material he needs available from the worldwide web without the need of borrowing books or periodicals from a library to meet his information needs, since there are currently various databases that provide scientific papers and books in digital format. This study suggests changes that can contribute to improved services to be provided to this newly demanding user; otherwise, libraries and the library employee may turn to be obsolete. Is is therefore imperative to adapt to said changes, in order to comply with the user´s needs, which have increasingly changed to digital formatrather than paper format; this corroborates the aforementioned architect´s remarks, despite his no involvement with the library field. In the ICB library, currently attached to the central library, the rate of paper-form journal loans has dropped close to zero. Evaluations of library loan reports today show the number of books borrowed by postgraduate students to have decreased considerably over the past years. An example is the Pharmacology PhD Studies group, which recorded no borrowings from 1/1/2014 through 9/30/2014. It has, therefore, become necessary to reassess the actual need for the paper-format library. The modern library should configure a forum for discussion, offering multimedia rooms, e-book readers, and automated services with which the user himself can meet most of his needs.