Role of Librarians in Distance Education at Brazilian Universities

• Autor(a) principal: Pinheiro da Nóbrega, Paula
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Belmont de Farias, Gabriela, Soares Rocha da Silva, Andréa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Information Science
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/bjis/article/view/14698
• topic: Librarianship; Librarians; Distance education; University education; Biblioteconomia; Bibliotecários; Educação a distância; Ensino superior

This article aims to understand how librarians work in the context of distance education in Brazilian universities, considering teaching, research and extension actions. It is characterized by a field study carried out with librarians from universities in six Brazilian cities; it uses the content analysis method and presents categories that reflect their professional practice. Regarding to the role of librarians in distance learning, of the six librarians who took part in the research, four said that they carry out this activity as part of their basic training; one said that he was working as an instructional designer, and the other said that he plays two roles: tutor and content designer. With regard to the public that librarians serve, six user profiles were mentioned: distance learning coordinator, content teacher, teacher-tutor, instructional designer, librarians and distance learning students. Regarding to librarians' perceptions of their participation in distance education, they have a positive view of their role and confirm their relevance within distance education teams. It can therefore be inferred that librarians can occupy and take on other roles as information professionals in the context of distance education, such as: teacher, tutor, instructional designer, among others.