Advocacy na bicentenária Biblioteca Pública da Bahia: perspectivas para ampliar o valor social de Bibliotecas Públicas.

Abstract

The term advocacy is current and emerging and signals the support of civil society and government in favor of a cause, strengthens the democratic system and the creation of public policies. Studies in Information Science on advocacy in libraries, nowadays, are perceived as scarce. It is believed that in the near future the theme will be strengthened by research and practices, enhancing the social function of libraries and promoting greater participation of civil society in decision-making in the library environment. The present study sought to investigate the use of advocacy devices in the Public Library of the State of Bahia, with a view to contributing to reflections that may reinvigorate the social function of Brazilian Public Libraries. Advocacy actions were carried out in the Public Library of the State of Bahia, chosen in this study due to its importance of being the first Public Library in the country and in Latin America. The advocacy actions were entitled “Course on Organization of Libraries for Evaluations” and “Perspectives and Expansion of the Social Value of Public Libraries”. As a result of the actions, we had an increase in the number of users at the BPEB, visibility of the BPEB, validation of the Public Library's social function; Influence on decision-making at BPEB, new activists in defense of Public Libraries, transfer of civil society in defense of Public Libraries and contribution to the dissemination of the term Advocacy among information professionals.