Avaliação da qualidade nos serviços de referência da biblioteca central da UECE

Abstract

The University Library (UL), also known as academic, is responsible for the information storage, processing, organization and management and the material that are used to record the knowledge of areas related to the academic world. The reference service is the main sector in the library, which can be seen as a set of activities offered, aiming to support the user in local and/or remote queries on the use of information resources of the UL and the reference librarian as an assertive/proactive critical mediator to the construction of scientific knowledge. Thus, this research aims to evaluate the quality of the services provided by the reference sector of the Central Library from the Universidade Estadual do Ceará (State University of Ceara/UECE), to the strict sensu. This is an exploratory, bibliographic and documentary search, and also qualitative and quantitative, using the functionalist method as the approach procedure. Data collection was done through a semistructured questionnaire. It was diagnosed in the results that the students do not know the services offered in the sector. Regarding the teachers’ encouragement in demand for services is of vital importance to the research. On the user’s satisfaction concerning the collection there was discrepancies in the answers. Concerning the librarian service related to demands and orientations to the user, the quality is not yet recommended, despite the readiness and the professional responsibility in the sector. It is believed that the reference service in libraries, especially university, is the gateway for users, because it would direct them in their local or remote consultations and use of information resources.