Literacia da informação e formação de utilizadores na biblioteca escolar

: estudo de caso

Abstract

Several studies claim that the more and the better people read, the betterwill their performance be in various social areas, as well as their literacy levels. Intoday’s society, the school has to face important challenges in the areas ofaccessing and mastering information. Therefore, it is fundamental for the school,in conjunction with the school library, to develop co-ordinated activities and topromote the acquisition of skills that are nowadays fundamental in the field ofinformation literacy. Consequently, the school library is seen as the nerve centreinside the school, thus becoming an open learning zone. The librarian teacher hasto provide the users a set of training activities so that the students can access allthe different resources available in the library and this way helping to improve thedevelopment of skills related to information literacy. This is the scope of thisaction-research project, whose main purpose is to show that the users trainingactivities are critical to the acquisition of knowledge by the students about theorganisation and functioning of a library and to learn and develop skills in the fieldof information literacy.To this end, and using as a basis one of the research models adapted bythe network of school libraries, the big six model, we undertook an interventionproject among the year 5 pupils from a school in the district of Viana do Castelo.Through literature review and according to the results obtained by implementingobservation grids and activities, we concluded that the school library, regarded asthe key driver area and support of all users in the development of their skills,benefits the acquisition of knowledge on the information functioning andorganisation. It also provides the development of skills associated with its correctresearch and everyday use, consequently creating the necessary learningpathway so that the students can achieve their educational success. Taking intoaccount the data collected, we can also anticipate that, if the school library drawsa research plan or model and is able to involve all the school, it can achieve itsgoals, thereby concluding that the users training in the development of informationliteracy is critical in this process.

Date of Award	1 Mar 2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Manuela Barreto Nunes (Supervisor)