THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AS A PROMOTER OF LITERARY READING: a case study in the Library System of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
Literary Reading. Reading Mediation. Reader's Training. University Library.
The literature on Education widely explores the topic of reader's training. Meanwhile, the literature on Information Science and Library explores the same subject but keeps it restricted to school libraries. In turn, the issues of information mediation, cultural mediation, and reading mediation have been addressed in academic publications, mainly in the context of community libraries. Yet, the same literature does not discuss the social role of university libraries in supporting those mediation objectives, particularly literary mediation. Against this backdrop, the current dissertation seeks to answer how the libraries that comprise the University Library System of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte can boost access to literary reading within its academic community. Furthermore, the study aims to shed light on reading practices and the use of the academic community's literary collection to promote literary reading in pursuit of intellectual growth and full citizenship education. The current research of applied social nature will be of the descriptive type while following a quantitative and qualitative approach. The procedural method adopted is of case study supported by the application of questionnaires to the academic community combined with structured interviews with managers of central and sectoral libraries with a literary collection. The current study's theoretical underpinnings encompass reader formation, university library, and reading mediation.