Information education: a possibility of consolidation for multilevel libraries

Abstract

This study brings together two concepts: information education and multilevel library, the first being understood as a set of actions that contribute to the evaluation and critical interpretation of the process of appropriation of information by the informational subject; and the second, as libraries that encompass characteristics of school and university libraries, as they simultaneously serve three levels of education (technical, secondary and higher). Based on this conception, it integrates ongoing research into the doctorate in Information Science, whose general objective is to analyze how libraries at Federal Institutes can consolidate themselves as promoters of information education, through infocommunication skills. Its locus is the multilevel libraries of the Federal Institutes, which are part of the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education in Brazil. The objective of this article is to describe the role of multilevel libraries from the perspective of information education. As for the methodological procedures, the research is qualitative in nature and, as for the objectives, it is an exploratory-descriptive and documentary research, with a case study, although, for the purposes of this article, it is restricted to the theoretical basis embodied in the review of the specialized literature on the topic. In relation to the partial conclusions, it is observed that it is not enough to offer training workshops, so that information subjects can only manage the technologies and sources of information - also considered important - but rather to provide subsidies, based on the promotion of skills infocommunicational, citizenship-oriented, aiming at their formation as critical, creative and reflective citizens.