The social networks and the use of information among UEL’s researchers of functional foods.

Abstract

Networks are developed through the contacts established by its actors, provoke the social construction of the individual, and, when seen through its relations, can identify cohesions and similarities, in coadunated activities of individuals who act as a single social body. Studying information use within Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) functional food’s network and its resources was the main goal of this work. The studied network is characterized by a group of researchers who seeks the development of this specialty – functional foods. Through Social Network Analysis’ (SNA) methodology, the central actors in the network and the informational resources used by such actors were identified. The results indicate that the use of information within the network occurs either in the formal scope and in the informal scope. The information resources, the link between information and network, provide information to the receptor, who needs it. In such network, the resources and information services are represented by Capes’ Periodicals Portal, Internet, libraries, and associations, which could be said, then, as the great facilitators of informational channels in the network.