Bibliographical principles in Brazilian degree courses in Library Sciences: an analysis of the epistemological curricular specificity

Abstract

The field of documentary mediation actions in a bibliographic approach deals with referencing and disseminating knowledge through systems, products and services that promote the qualified use of information by an audience, aiming at its appropriation. The Bibliography course presents concepts and operations that form the fundamental basis of the described field. These fundamental bibliographic aspects – or bibliographic principles – constitute the
structuring axis of curricular proposals aimed at professional formation and research. Despite the fact that bibliographic principles constitute the structuring axis of Librarianship courses, we question whether these principles are currently sufficient and properly present in the curricular proposals of these courses in Brazil. Thus, the objective of the research is to characterize the presence of bibliographic principles in Brazilian Librarianship education, through the analysis of undergraduate programs, verifying whether these programs provide epistemological specificity concerning the social function of information appropriation by an audience. Initially, a scheme of bibliographic principles and the processes and products that derive from them is presented, which allows to guide and underpin the study; then, an empirical analysis is carried out with the proposition of categories, selection of undergraduate Librarianship coursesand teaching programs, analysis and discussion. The analysis of curricular proposals indicates that bibliographic principles were not abandoned, but there was a partial erasure, often leading to a loss of focus and specificity. It is necessary to invest in curricular proposals whose epistemological specificity is easily identified and aimed at educating for the social function of the field that deals with documentary mediation actions in a bibliographical approach.