Bibliotecas de saberes arcanos : a representação das dinâmicas informacionais humanas nas resoluções de problemas sobrenaturais, uma análise da série Supernatural

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of libraries and information sources in the audiovisual series Supernatural, aiming to analyze the role these cultural resources play in decision-making through information mediation to solve the problems faced by the protagonists. The research's starting question is: How do the human informational dynamics represented in Supernatural assist in resolving the supernatural problems in the series? The general objective of the research is to investigate the cultural representation of libraries and informational actions in Supernatural. The specific objectives are: i) to identify the informational units and sources presented in Supernatural, ii) to analyze the process and resources used by the characters in their search for information, and iii) to correlate the characters' informational competencies with the foundations of Library Science and Information Science. The monograph is justified by the cultural assumption of the relevance and pertinence of the library as a cultural heritage of humanity and of Library Science as a field of meta-knowledge that intersects with various other fields to solve human problems. This is a qualitative, exploratory, and documentary study, with the audiovisual series as the primary object of analysis. The research includes a bibliographic review of scientific and academic databases for theoretical grounding and employs Bardin's (2016) content analysis to examine the characters' interactions with informational environments. To assess the informational competence of the characters Sam and Dean Winchester, a comparative analysis was conducted using Grogan’s reference process and Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s Big 6 method. As a methodological procedure, a comparison was also made between the Men of Letters, as represented in the series, and professional librarians and their social roles. The results demonstrate the connection between the informational dynamics described in reference processes and informational competence in the literature of Library and Information Science and the cultural representation of arcane libraries in the series. Supernatural appropriately emphasizes the importance of information, libraries, and the need for informational competence in decision-making. The research concludes that audiovisual narratives can influence and serve as a tool for increasing the visibility of Library Science, Information Science, and the librarian profession, helping to demystify conservative stereotypes of the field. As a recommendation, the study suggests producing more literature on the audiovisual representation of libraries, librarians, and books as information sources, as well as including fandom as an element of analysis for audiovisual documents like Supernatural.