Information Management @ Universities : a model proposal

Abstract

This communication aims to present the main result of a research in the field of Information Management (IM), acknowledged as a cross-sectional and applied area in Information Science (IS). It is based on a diagnosis made at Portuguese Public Universities, complemented by a more detailed study performed at the University of Porto (U.Porto) involving traditional information services (Archives, Libraries, Documentation Centres and Museums), an area that, in the last few decades, has sustained epistemological and theoretical changes which have impacted on training and investigative models, functional contents and professional profiles, as well as emerging services such as Informatics and the role of IM, that tend to dominate IM in the digital environment. The info-communicational flow is considered in its several stages and contexts and managed under the concept of information (human and social phenomenon). IM is defined as the study, conception, implementation and development of processes and services related to the info-communicational flow, serving to build implementation models for maximum efficiency and profitability. The prospective vision is embodied in the proposal of an Active and Permanent Information System Management Model (MGSI-AP) for the university.