Avaliação da Biblioteca Alfredo Galvão: opinião dos graduandos da Escola de Belas Artes da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

University libraries appeared in conjunction with the first universities in Europe. In Brazil, it was not until the end of the 19th Century that the first institutions of higher learning were created, and with them the university libraries came into being. University libraries are linked to institutions of higher learning, and must follow their administrative guidelines and policies, thus having limited autonomy. The Alfredo Galvão Library falls under the Belas Artes (Fine Arts) School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. That library is the purpose of this study which aims to evaluate the collection, the customer service and the other library services. To that end, two assessment questions were the basis for this study, the first one evaluates if the book collection is sufficient for the current needs of the graduate students, and the second evaluates if the customer service and the other library services meet the needs of the graduate students. The study is centered on the consumers of the library’s services: the students. The respondents are the graduate students of the Belas Artes (Fine Arts) School, who are registered and active users of the Alfredo Galvão Library. The criteria are built upon categories, subcategories and indicators, that were chosen for their adequacy to the study’s objectives. The instrument is a questionnaire with 19 closed-ended questions and 2 open-ended questions, validated by two experts and by two graduate students. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed and the results were presented in tables by subcategories and indicators, including the total number of respondents by level of service. The results show that the students are satisfied with the book collection, customer service and other library services of the Alfredo Galvão Library. The recommendations encompass the comments of the respondents, and offer suggestions for the elaboration of a Library Collection Development Policy.