The University of Porto : Information Management and Appraisal

Abstract

The University of Porto presents a complex organisational macro-system which generates an equally complex information system, involving both scientific, technical and cultural knowledge and educational and administrative activities, supported by several technological platforms. The complexity of this universe requires to an integrated approach regarding the information produced and its management, moving towards an information management model which has its epistemological foundations in the scientific area of Information Science. The main purpose of this paper is to present the University of Porto's perspective regarding an integrated information management model directed at the challenges and needs of the Information Era and to share the experiences carried out under a new theoretical approach that assumes Appraisal as a methodological operation inserted within the technical pole of the Quadripolar Research Method in Information Science. The theoretical approach was studied/applied in a research project whose main goal was to create a framework, as objective as possible, to determine through information analysis the final destination of the information produced and accumulated in the course of activities undertaken by the University of Porto and its information subsystems (colleges, research institutes and other organic and functional sectors). In 2002, the appraisal results, obtained under this new approach, received approval from the body that, in Portugal, coordinates archival policies, the Directorate-General of Archives under the Ministry of Culture. The theoretical basis adopted by the University of Porto, quite different from the model traditionally advocated based on the dichotomy