The Concept of Competence in Scientific Articles on Information Competence in Brazil (2000–2010)

Implications for Library Science Education

Abstract

The concept of competence has become central to all levels of education in Brazil. In Library Science, it has permeated curricular documents, including the National Curricular Guidelines developed in 2001, Political-Pedagogical Projects, and course programs. Since then, the concept has gained considerable ground in Brazilian Library Science. And the term information literacy was translated as "competence in information" in Brazil. This study aims to identify the specific definition of competence employed in articles on competence in information from the initial decade of research on this subject within Brazilian information science literature. To this end, articles on information competence from 2000 to 2010 were surveyed in Brazilian information science literature. The survey was conducted in the Information Science Database, and the data were analyzed using content analysis based on categorical analysis. The results show that the concept of competence was rarely discussed in the first scientific articles on information competence in Brazil from 2000 to 2010. The competence concept used focused more on technical aspects, such as the integration of methods and tools related to competence as know-how. The study concludes that including the theme of Information Literacy, as well as discussing the concept of competence in librarian training, could contribute to more critical training for future professionals.