Posgraduate studies and research perspectives in Library and Information Science in Brazil

Abstract

The Information Science area in Brazil (including Library, Archival and Documentation studies) has been suffering an academic consolidation during the last ten years, specially by means of the development of PhD and MSc programs, as well as by a complex and efficient governmental system of research supporting. In this sense, Brazil could build its epistemological background based on foreign influences (specially North American, English, French and Spanish ones), as well on a self-reflection about social, economical, and cultural aspects inherent to the Brazilian reality. Such a scientific landscape has allowed the country to taking part in most of the theoretical and methodological international discussions in the Information Science scenery. Considering those questions, it presents a landscape of Brazilian postgraduate and research support system in Information Science which makes possible to conclude, on one side, that there are not enough PhD and MSc programs to respond to the growing demands of the area (specially the needs for professors in Archival and Library Science Undergraduate courses) and, on the other side, that the strong governmental research support policies and the existence of scientific associations like ANCIB furnish a very unique environment for scientific research, academic exchange and, as a consequence, the advance of Information Science in Brazil.