Evaluating principles for university library: promoting culture, art and knowledge beyond books collection

Abstract

This paper is about the evaluation of the university library in the context of the National Higher Education Evaluation System (SINAES, in Portuguese). It aims to propose a set of evaluating principles for the university library which goes beyond the simple verification and updating of collections. For methodology, it relies on documentary and bibliographic research with inputs from the study of users and from the experience of university extension accomplished in Tocantins Federal University. As a result, it presents a six-steps model: 1) global view; 2) definition of products and services; 3) identification of the needs of the interactors; 4) continuous evaluation of the processes; 5) marketing; and 6) continuous improvement. It concludes by reinforcing this model so that university libraries are evaluated as having the best quality and not as simple deposits of books.