The promotion of information literacy for the prevention and control of disinformation at university: the role of university libraries

Abstract

Given the contemporary scenario in which there is a voluminous production of information and its sharing is carried out quickly, it is necessary for the individual to be able to meet their information needs in a critical and responsible manner. In order to provide the subject's informational autonomy, there is the Information Literacy, which has become an increasingly essential corpus of knowledge within the university, and the University Library is a privileged place for its promotion of Information Literacy aiming to assist in combating disinformation existing in the most varied social spaces, including the university. This paper maps in the literature the initiatives to promote information literacy for the prevention and control of disinformation carried out by university libraries, in order to make visible these  initiatives and the possible results obtained by them. The effort undertaken for this purpose is in line with the master's research in development on the initiatives carried out by university libraries in the promotion of information literacy aimed at combating disinformation. To carry out the data collection, searches were carried out in the Portal de Periódicos da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal do Ensino Superior/ Ministério da Educação (Portal CAPES/MEC) and in the Base de Dados Referencial de Artigos de Periódicos em Ciência da Informação (BRAPCI). The recovered articles were inserted into tables to better data visualization and subsequent analysis. Data analysis was performed using Laurence Bardin's Content Analysis method, using the categorical analysis technique. The evaluation was carried out by the abstracts of the recovered materials, and when necessary for reasons of doubts as to the content of the materials, the full content was read. For the delimitation of the corpus to be analyzed, no time frame, material typology or language was defined. Although we have been in evidence in recent years in everyday life, in the press and in scientific events, the results obtained reveal a still scarce scientific production on the subject and the need to research more on the subject and its relevance in the current context. In contemporary times, the university library cannot be thought of only as a place where it is possible to have access to information, it is also necessary to think about its educational function not only for the university public, but also for society in general. Reflecting on the subject and looking for ways to empower subjects so that they can develop autonomy in the search, retrieval and analysis of the information to which they have access is to promote the opportunity for these subjects to fully exercise their citizenship in the Information Society.