Hábitos de obtenção e uso da informação: técnicos da Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia (CIENTEC)

Abstract

The study aims a behavior analysis involving the technical personnel of the Foundation of Science and Technology-CIENTEC in their search for and use of the information sought, as well as the evaluation of the quality of the bibliographic material available at the Documentation and Information Center-DI and the services rendered by the above mentioned Information Center Three assumptions were made: 1) the use for informal channels is predominant; 2) there is a communication network among the technicians, where internal contacts are predominant; 3) the level and the services rendered by DI according to the opinion of the population interviewed during our study are ranked as good The personnel approached (n = 70) were chosen withing the areas of engineering, chemistry, industrial chemistry,economics, geology, natural history Two instruments of data compilation are used: questionnaires and interviews. These instruments, notwithstanding certain flaws, proved to be efficacious in terms of the obtention of the necessary data for the purposes of study. The critical incident technique is adopted when questions posed aim an insight of the behavior pattern of those interviewed and their use of the information sought The results obtained point out that: a) members of the group under study make use predominantly of formal channels in their search for information (rejection of assumption 1); b) the technical communication network at CIENTEC showed the existence of internal and external contacts. External contacts are more frequent than internal ones (partial confirmation of assumption 2); c) the disposition of collections and catalogs, as well as the services rendered by DI to the users, are ranked as GOOD. The same was not observed regarding the collections, which were ranked as REGULAR regarding the fulfillment of information needs (partial confirmation of assumption 3).