Disseminação seletiva da informação na área da saúde : um estudo comparativo entre três unidades de informação brasileira

Abstract

Anchored to the Reference Service, the Selective Dissemination of Information (DSI) is one of the main services performed by information professionals in a specialized or university library, which is the provision of documents in a personalized way, especially scientific articles, for researchers/professionals in a given area of knowledge. Considering the health area as an interdisciplinary field, in which scientific production is present in universities, hospitals and research centers, and that users need information related to specific, updated subjects that guide decision making, this research presented as a general objective: to characterize the SDI actions of three Brazilian information units. The specific objectives were: to identify the sources of information used by libraries for SDI; to verify the barriers to the development of SDI in the health area of these institutions and the challenges encountered by the librarians of these institutions for the application of SDI. We used a descriptive, qualitative and quantitative research, supported by bibliographic research, having as instrument of data collection, a questionnaire with open and closed questions. As results, we verified that all institutions develop actions in the scope of the SDI service, and this service is done in a planned way and with regularity. The information units use diversified sources of information to support the SDI service, such as the library's website, ebooks and government sites. Regarding the barriers and challenges found for the application of SDI, the need for an active posture from librarians, the language barrier and the diversity of information needs of the areas that are part of Health Sciences were some of the points highlighted. We conclude that the SDI service is essential in an information unit, both for the specialized users, who are also knowledge producers, and for the population as a whole, exercising a primordial role in the search for social welfare, provided by the information produced and disseminated in different infocommunicational contexts.