The academic library as a hybrid mechanism of enterprise generation: possibilities towards the entrepreneurial university

• Autor(a) principal: de Oliveira, Maísa Maryelli
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Cassiavilani, Camila, Spinola, Adriana Tahereh Pereira, do Amaral, Roniberto Morato, Ferrari Júnior, Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Em Questão (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/EmQuestao/article/view/94292
• topic: Universidade empreendedora; Biblioteca universitária; Empreendedorismo acadêmico; Startup.; Entrepreneurial university; Academic library; Academic entrepreneurship; Startup.

This article discusses the potentialities and difficulties of the academic library as a hybrid mechanism of enterprise generation, capable of contributing to the transition to the entrepreneurial university, understood from an international model. The discussion is based on the participation of the Biblioteca Comunitária da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) (“Community Library of the Federal University of São Carlos”) in the first edition of the Desafio UFSCar de Inovação e Empreendedorismo (UFSCar Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge). This is an exploratory study which takes a qualitative approach and adopts a documentary research procedure. Although the UFSCar library’s performance in the UFSCar Challenge had been restricted to the allocation of physical space, experience showed that, through adaptations in terms of infrastructure and management, that library, as well as the academic library in general, could incorporate elements of coworking and of prototyping laboratories, which would enable collaboration between potential entrepreneurs, would provide for networking and would make it possible to draw upon known tools and techniques for new business proposals. Furthermore, librarians could train future entrepreneurs to use technical and scientific databases, especially patent databases, which would enable them to search for precedence and would stimulate processes of competitive intelligence and technological mapping, considered crucial to the development of a business plan. Generally being a place where many people go to and where many people meet, the library could also help to disseminate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at the university, which would foster the appreciation of that institution and that of its professionals on campus. On the other hand, for all this to happen, some possible difficulties must be overcome, such as the scarcity of financial and human resources, the development of a library space usage policy, and professionals’ resistance to culture change and to the adoption of new practices.