Empowerment and social leadership in the reference sector of university libraries

Abstract

Presents search results conducted with librarians who work in the reference section of university libraries. It aims to analyze whether these professionals have empowerment signs and stages of social involvement in their work, mechanisms that may contribute to the development of strategies that take the librarian to greater participation in social issues related to the profession, interaction and communication with users. To this end, it was used as methodology the qualitative approach, the participant survey method, questionnaires and interviews to collect data, which were analyzed using content analysis. The results show that there is in the subject of research evidence of empowerment and social role in the actions in the reference sector with users, like: examine the issue of the user's initial research, aiming to enter data to the question and suggesting users additional information resulting from the research. It concludes that the librarian when empower the information you need, you can reach stages of social leadership, and the status of the work, becoming a transforming agent of the professional reality in which it operates, encouraging users to become autonomous in access and use of information recognizing the value of this for their training.