EXTINCTION OF A UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MEMORY CENTER: INFORMATIONAL IMPACTS OF DISCONTINUITY AND LOSS OF KNOWLEDGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INFORMATION SCIENCE

Abstract

The closure of university memory centers represents a concrete risk to the preservation of the informational heritage accumulated over years of institutional practices. In the context of university extension — which articulates academic and popular knowledge — this loss takes on even more critical contours. This paper aims to reflect on the informational and documentary impacts resulting from the deactivation of a memory center aimed at preserving extension actions at a Brazilian public university, which operated for 15 years as a repository of records, documents, reports and collections. The absence of custody and continuity strategies can seriously compromise institutional memory and access to information of public, academic and scientific interest.