Alocação de recursos financeiros para aquisição de materiais informacionais em bibliotecas universitárias

Abstract

The step of acquisition of informational materials in libraries, in the context of formation and development, presents subdivisions, of which the most common are purchase, donation, and barter. In the acquisition by purchase, the need to allocate financial resources is recurrent, and the use of mathematical and/or statistical formulas can be a facilitator in the process of allocating financial resources for the acquisition of analog and/or digital information materials. Thus, the need to study the allocation of financial resources in university libraries of the federal network is justified not only for financial issues but also because of social issues related, for example, to access to information. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to study how the allocation of financial resources works for the purchase of informational materials in university libraries, considering undergraduate courses. It is a descriptive research of information technology of nature, using the critical-dialectical methodological approach. As main results, we highlight that, in most cases, the reading of the Policies for the formation and development of collections is not enough to fully understand how the process of acquisition of informational materials is carried out in the Libraries of Brazilian Federal Universities; there is no pattern among the researched institutions to allocate financial resources for the purchase of there is no standard among the researched institutions to allocate financial resources for the purchase of informational materials; eight institutions use formulas to allocate resources for the purchase of information materials; the existence of a policy for the formation and development of collections contributes to the presentation of criteria and/or indicators that should be used to support the decision on the allocation of financial resources for the purchase of information materials; the absence of a policy for the formation and development of collections affects the work of professionals in relation to the process of formation and development of collections. Therefore, this study recommends greater objectivity, transparency, and assertiveness in the processes that involve the allocation of financial resources for the purchase of informational materials.