OPAC as a pedagogical-cultural device in music training: identification and analysis in São Paulo State higher education institutions context

Abstract

Objective: Given the importance of bibliographic catalogues for the mediation of information, this work aims to analyse São Paulo State university library OPACs from HEIs that offer degrees in Music.

Methods: Among the 28 São Paulo institutions consulted online, 10 did not have an OPAC. In this way, 18 catalogues were analysed, using an exploratory and qualitative methodology, and based on the concept of infoeducation, based on 12 categories adapted from the literature and listed a priori.

Results: it was possible to observe that the analysed OPACs prioritize the search, identification, and access to bibliographic records, operating in an emporium library model, that is, concerned with the dissemination of information. The search for documentary typologies is supported in 77.78% of the catalogues, but only 33.3% allow the retrieval of instrumental formations. Customized features are rarer, such as saving search history (44.44%), and customizing the search (11.11%). Integration with social media is used in 33.3% of catalogues, and resources similar to Web 2.0, in 66.7%.

Conclusions: more sophisticated elements of analysis could have been used, especially those referring to the Web resources themselves, but these would be outside the context of current OPACs, which have proven to be below current digital devices. It is believed that public access catalogues need to rethink their tools as a political act of forming the citizen identity of the users they serve, acting as a forum, in favour of music graduates' mediation and training.