Perceptions and uses of information by brazilian university studentes: input for planning information literacy interventions

Resumo: A study that aimed to identify the perceptions, habits and uses of information by students at a public university in Brazil is presented. A questionnaire composed of nine questions was disseminated online via the social network Facebook, and 216 completed questionnaires were returned. The results do not differ much from those found in other countries among university students, and in general, show a striking preference for information in digital format, and that which is mostly accessed by searches conducted from Google and Google Scholar search engines. There is a concomitant and striking neglect in the use of library catalogs, printed information sources, and even the high quality reference databases to which university students have access subsidized by the Brazilian government. A lack of familiarity with the terms used to describe information sources was identified, implying that the relationship between the use of Google Scholar and digital repositories is unknown, and most respondents pointed to the directions of their teachers as the quality filter for information and they do not have their own mechanisms for evaluating it. The use made of the university library by the respondents is limited, and there is a worrying lack of awareness of the roles and potential contributions of librarians.