Abordagem contemporânea para a gestão de bibliotecas universitárias brasileiras.

Abstract

It presents the many forms of administration employed by Brazilian academic libraries, in contemporary society, as was disclosed during the Seminário Nacional de Bibliotecas Universitárias (SNBU). It brings an alternative proposition for the management of the Brazilian academic libraries – the Discursive administration – a critical approach of Administration expanded from Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Act and Discourse, consistent with the current demands. It describes the main aspects of the Discursive administration drawn up from the habermasian theories’ viewpoint. It addresses the management of academic libraries, based on the literature, with the purpose to demonstrate a brief history about the theme. It also reports the results of an empirical research extracted from the oral presentations during the 2004, 2008 and 2012 SNBU, revealing that the many forms of administration encountered in the sample are related to the contemporary approaches to the Administration area, which indicates the link between that area and the Librarianship, and denotes a greater emphasis on instrumental rationality in such institutions. It presents considerations that would favor the implementation of the Discursive administration in the Brazilian academic libraries in order to encourage the reflection and discussion on the administration of libraries in contemporary society.