Shelf arrangement as curricular content in the undergraduate Librarianship course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the report of a proposed subject

ABSTRACT

Shelf arrangement is the activity that proposes arrangements for documents in furniture according to attributes defined as criteria. Call number is one of the main solutions for arranging documents in the context of libraries and as content developed in undergraduate Librarianship courses in Brazil. In these courses’ curricula, shelf arrangement is usually allocated in part within bibliographic classification systems subjects or within cataloging subjects. The objective of the study is to discuss shelf arrangement and the call number as contents of core subjects of the Federal University of Minas Gerais undergraduate Librarianship course, in order to contextualize and support the experience of offering elective subjects related to the theme as an alternative proposal to the current framework. The methodology consisted of a qualitative double-track exploratory research based on the bibliographic-documentary approach and the intervention-research. As a result, it is observed that, in the analyzed curricular trajectory, shelf arrangement has progressively become restricted to the call number, however, in the absence of this model’s approach as a complex and articulated product. The need to broaden the discussions about the didactic transpositions of contents according to theoretical supports which underpin them is highlighted in the study..

Keywords:
Shelf arrangement; Call number; Teaching in information organization; UFMG undergraduate Librarianship course