Guidelines for working with information management: entrepreneurial practices in librarianship

Abstract

Presents guidelines for librarians who wish to undertake Information Management, fostering the entrepreneurial culture in Librarianship. The study's general objective is to present guidelines for librarians who wish to undertake activity in ​​Information Management, as specific objectives, it seeks to conceptualize entrepreneurship in the area, identify related works in the literature, map companies in the sector, and understand the challenges and experiences of entrepreneurial librarians in Brazil. The research is applied, with a quantitative-qualitative, descriptive, exploratory, and bibliographic approach. A bibliographic survey was carried out, recovering 22 relevant works, and a mapping of companies founded by librarians was conducted, identifying 62 organizations through social networks and professional groups. A questionnaire was sent to the companies, to wich 40% of the companies contributed to the study. The results made it possible to categorize the niches of professional activity, identify the year in which the mapped companies were created, verify which companies were formalized, identify which owners are librarians, the regions of the country that the companies serve, the activities that an entrepreneurial librarian can perform, what makes each company different, the main software used to provide services, the main clients and suppliers, and the main challenges of entrepreneurship in the area. Based on the data collected, guidelines were developed to guide librarians interested in entrepreneurship in ​​Information Management. The research contributes to strengthening entrepreneurship in Librarianship, highlighting the innovative potential of professionals and their possibilities to work in various fields and business niches.