School Libraries and Reading Rooms

differences, competencies and contributions in the school environment brazilian

Abstract

School libraries and reading rooms play important roles in schools, however, it is necessary to distinguish the attributions of such spaces that perform different functions, but that talk to each other. This article aims to present a reflection about school libraries and reading rooms in the Brazilian educational context. This is a qualitative and exploratory study, of a bibliographical and documental nature, which seeks to reflect on the functioning, differences and contributions of these spaces in the school environment. It was observed the existence of a conceptual confusion regarding school libraries and reading rooms in legal documents and public policies on the subject in which both are referred to as synonyms, which implies a series of difficulties and misunderstandings for the identification and regulation of these spaces. The consultation carried out in the specialized literature, as well as in national and international documents and legislation on the subject, identified some characteristics that can contribute to the characterization of these spaces. It concludes that there is a need to create regulations and actions on the part of the municipal and state education departments, private education institutions and mainly on the part of the Ministry of Education, defining such spaces with specificity and that clearly guide their performance, in addition to the promotion of new studies on this theme, intertwining the knowledge produced in the fields of Education and Librarianship, in order to improve the performance and benefits of school libraries and reading rooms for the education system and the school community.