University library and the process of developing new informational knowledge: an experience with wikipedia

Abstract

Objective: Based on an experience conducted between the university library and the classroom, using the digital encyclopedia Wikipedia, the study approaches the university library as an educational dispositif, concerned with the exploitation of informational knowledge by students.
Methodology: Qualitative, exploratory, and participant research.
Results: The experience revealed the potential of using Wikipedia in textual production practices that could contribute to the development, with students, of perceptions about the exploitation and derivation of meaning of information in the scientific-academic culture. Moreover, the study showed the potential of the university library as an educational dispositif that is concerned with actions aimed at the dynamics involved in the derivation of meaning in the scientific-academic context.
Conclusions: The study indicated the potential of dialogues between the university library and the classroom by means of the development of actions to achieve the education of the student in the ambit of information and knowledge as a common goal for both. It was considered that the development of the university library’s educational dimension requires methodologies and practices of exploitation of informational knowledge. This aspect led to the highlighting of the potential of using Wikipedia in processes of research, reading, writing and, also, for students to experience writing as an autonomous and creative act.