ESTÃO AS BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS BRASILEIRAS ADEQUADAS AO ENSINO E À PESQUISA EM ECOLOGIA?

This contribution aimed at verifying if selected libraries from major Brazilian universites are prepared to meet the increasing demand on ecological research and teaching that has been observed in the country during recent years. The methodology consisted in investigating and comparing percentuals of coverage in journal collections from each library, considering one key topic in ecology: secondary production. Only the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) has the capability to cover satisfactorily most selected references. A second group consisting of other universities in São Paulo Sate and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has collections covering 40-60% of all references. A third, and the largest, group of universities has poorer collections covering always less than 40% of all selected references. Despite being ranked in this third group, some large universities, like the University of Brasília or the Federal University of Minas Gerais, have a long tradition in ecological research as well as some of the country's most important graduate programmes on Ecology

Periódical; Ecology; University library; Assessment