Analysis of the Perception of Latin American National Libraries about Legal Deposit, Bibliographic Control and Bibliographies, and Comparison with the Perception of Iberian National Libraries

Abstract

It analyzes the perception of Latin American national libraries in relation to the current situation concerning legal deposit and bibliographic control, and the importance of the creating and maintenance of current and updated bibliographies in the preservation of memory, identity and intellectual heritage in the countries they represent, comparing it with the perception of Iberian national libraries. It is an exploratory and descriptive research, with a quali-quantitative approach. The data collection instrument used was an online questionnaire, composed of open-ended and closed-ended questions. The corpus consists of 12 responding national libraries (11 Latin American and 01 Iberian), which represent 55.0% and 50.0% of the surveyed countries, respectively. In general, the results show that, despite the good will of the responding Latin American national libraries, several actions are still necessary in order to make legal deposit and bibliographic control fully efficient and representative. Although the use of retrospective bibliographies is perceived as important for the intellectual production dissemination, the scenario is far from ideal, given the diversity of identified factors that negatively impact the creation and maintenance of current and updated bibliographies. The situation is different in the responding Iberian national library, which may symbolize a reflection of a successful initiative, permeated by a larger cultural tradition of documental preservation in the country it represents when compared to the Latin American countries.