Representações sociais de biblioteca pública: a voz dos usuários do interior e da capital de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The research investigated the social representations of the users of a public library in Belo Horizonte and two cities in the interior of Minas Gerais, located in the Mucuri and Jequitinhonha Valleys. The Theory of Social Representations, inaugurated by Serge Moscovici, brings ample material for reflection and analysis of social phenomena insofar as it starts from the premise of making the unfamiliar familar. This study is based on the foundations of this theory, insofar as it investigated the social role of public libraries through the social representations that its users have of them. It aimed to identify and analyze the social representations of public libraries and from the critical analysis of the factors that underlie the construction of these representations, to understand how these institutions act today and their potential development in front of the demands of the community. In addition to this general objective, it sought to understand the social role played by public libraries; to investigate how the social representations of the public library by its users influence in its relation with the institution; recognize how institutions can be represented beyond material conditions, space and its organizational chart, configuring themselves as places of production of knowledge and encounter; to identify how the apprehension of these representations can assist local governments in the improvement of policies and guidelines for the development of public libraries and to produce a qualitative framework of the public libraries of Minas Gerais, helping to consolidate the theme as a field of research in Information Science. For the apprehension of representation, we chose the composition of different forms of investigation, such as the questionnaire, semi-structured interview and observation. In order to understand what is common in the social representation of public libraries of users of communities with distinct characteristics, it was decided to research the largest public library in the state, located in Belo Horizonte and two libraries located in the interior of the State, one in the municipality of Águas Formosas and other one in Rio do Prado, considering the socio-economic characteristics that distinguish the two realities, the interior and the capital. Fifty users who answered the questionnaire and three users who participated in the semi-structured interview participated in the survey. The research concluded that the most salient social representations pertaining to the public library are book, meeting place and democratization of access. The social role developed by libraries extrapolates the useful sense of access to information and demonstrates subjective senses evidenced by the incentive to read, place of knowledge, place of meeting and leisure.