The Graduate Program in Information Science at ECA-USP (PPGCI/USP) was created in 2006, with the aim of strengthening research and education in the study area. It is based on the training of researchers and qualified human resources for higher education and other national and international socio-political-scientific-cultural organisations. The program`s internationalization aims to increase academic and cultural dialogue with other universities, while recognizing the maturity of the research developed within the Program in partnership activities. The activities that have been developed, within the scope of academic agreements with foreign researchers, seek to consolidate research on topics of interest to the Program, in addition to incorporating new themes and inserting professors and students on other research fronts.

The Program has a focus on Culture and Information; and aims to develop theoretical and methodological references in topics that related to the following three Research Lines: Social Appropriation of Information; Management of Information Systems; and Information and Knowledge Organization.

This specialization area studies the relationships that characterizes the processes of construction and / or re-construction of meaning and / or the cultural product when information is transformed into knowledge and the cultural product, into a cultural asset, proposing the observation of necessary actions , so that information can be preserved and socially circulated (collection, selection, organization, access) and the analysis of cultural contexts where these processes take place and acquire social meaning. The insertion of information studies in the social-cultural context aims to provide a particular understanding of introduction of Information Science in the scope of Applied Social Sciences.

The specialization area has 3 (three) Research Lines:
1) Social Appropriation of Information;
2) Management of Information Systems; and
3) Information and knowledge organization

Research Line: Social Appropriation of Information

Study of the processes of social appropriation of information, considered in its educational and cultural aspects and defined as one of the specific objects of Information Science, and an area of transdisciplinary knowledge. It includes historical-cultural studies focused on policies, dynamics, devices and cultural practices, as well as studies on the relations between Information and Education, under synchronic and diachronic perspectives. These studies mobilize concepts such as symbolic appropriation, cultural action, informational knowledge, info-education, cultural mediation, cultural protagonism, among others.
The researches that integrate the line are distributed in two complementary fronts:
a) Cultural action, cultural policy, cultural devices, information technology and culture;
b) info-education, approach on the connections between Education and Information, with a view to the appropriation of informational knowledge and to affirmative participation in the contemporary culture.

Faculty - Social Appropriation of Information

Edmir Perrotti
Giulia Crippa
Ivan Cláudio Pereira Siqueira
Ivete Pieruccini
Lúcia Maciel B. de Oliveira
Marco Antônio Almeida

Research Line: Management of Information Systems

Theoretical and methodological studies related to the planning, management and evaluation of services, networks and information systems. It includes the analysis of the variables that interfere in the management of flows from selection to the use of information resources, in order to guarantee the adequacy of products and services to the user's needs in specific contexts. It also includes analyses and reflections, from a managerial point of view, of information and scientific and technological communication policies, as well as its main channels of diffusion.
The focuses and topics that are part of this research line divided into the following categories:
a) studies on managerial mediation models in Information Services, supported by theories and methods of Administration and Communication.
b) studies on the production and evaluation of scientific and technical communication, supported by bibliometric, scientometric and informetric theories and methods;
c) studies on virtual environments for the production, circulation and access to information, with an emphasis on understanding the processes mediated by information and communication technologies;
d) historical-conceptual reflections on user studies, invisible college, virtual communities and communities of practice, including an understanding of methods and analysis procedures;
The contextualization of the studies allows a better understanding of the environmental, organizational, socio-cultural variables that interfere with the user's information needs (individual or collective) and in the assessment of its relevance criteria in relation to information resources, research support and recovery of information available. Thus, the studies consider different information devices, virtual or in person, public or private, general or specialized, and the nature of the information available for access.

Faculty - Management of Information Systems

Asa Fujino
Francisco Carlos Paletta
José Fernando Modesto da Silva
Marcelo dos Santos
Marcos Mucheroni
Pedro Luiz Côrtes
Rogério Mugnaini
Sueli Mara Soares Pinto Ferreira

Research Line: Information and Knowledge Organisation

Theoretical and methodological studies related to the organization of knowledge and information and its circulation for the purposes of access, recovery and use. Compreende a análise dos objetivos, processos e instrumentos que caracterizam as distintas possibilidades de organização da informação, considerando - se ainda a sua inserção histórica e sócio-cultural e as condições de interação face à diversidade da produção e dos públicos da informação. It also includes historical and epistemological approaches to the organization of knowledge and information.
The focuses and topics that are part of this research line divided into the following categories:
a) theories and methods of construction and organization of documentary information for different receivers. The textual / discursive aspects of the informational objects and the different models of reading, analysis, condensation and representation are observed, including the computational models.
b) the construction of language documentation and other tools for organizing information for access, retrieval and use, observing linguistic, semiotic, terminological and communicational characteristics, documentary content and recipient groups, as well as technological inputs;
c) historical and epistemological studies related to the social organization of knowledge and its relationship with the proposals for organizing information;
d) analysis and proposition of information organization policies within the scope of its distribution and reception.

Faculty - Information and Knowledge Organisation

Cibele Araújo Camargo Marques dos Santos
Giovana Deliberali Maimone
Marilda L. Ginez de Lara
Marivalde Moacir Francelin
Nair Y. Kobashi
Vânia Mara A. Lima

The Professional Master's Degree in “Information Management” was created as a new course within PPGCI / USP, as a strategy to boost the relationship between scientific and applied research, facilitating the appropriation of theoretical references for the development of intervention projects in the professional world. It was assumed that Information Science is recognized as a field that involves both scientific research and professional practice, which gives it its own disciplinary character. From an investigative point of view, its identity is based on the scope of formulating problems with the scientific perspective and potential practical solutions, regardless of the disciplinary origin of the knowledge used in the investigation procedures. Therefore, the differentiation between the professional stricto sensu graduate courses, as in the case of the Professional Master's Degree, in relation to the existing academic courses, from the pedagogical point of view, is based much more on the emphasis on problems from the professional world as objects of investigation, with the goal to contribute to the development of skills aimed at critical evaluation, intervention and resolution of problems related to it.

Professional Master’s – Specialization area: Organization, Mediation and Information Circulation

With the aim of boosting the relationship between scientific and applied research and to facilitate the appropriation of theoretical references in the area for the development of intervention projects in the world of work regarding the processes of organization, mediation and circulation of information, the specialization area consists of three lines of research: Cultural Mediation, Information Management Units and Knowledge Organization.

Research Lines:

Cultural Mediation
The cultural mediation approach, within the scope of the Professional Master's Degree, focuses on the theoretical, methodological, technical and material aspects mobilized in cultural practices in information devices. The researches included in this line are focused on training professionals for the elaboration, development and evaluation of cultural mediation projects in public and private organizations; active in the area of education, culture, science and technology.
Professors: Edmir Perrotti, Ivete Pieruccini, Lourival Pereira Pinto and Lúcia Maciel Barbosa de Oliveira.

Information Management Units
The line proposes to train professionals to recognize the environmental and organizational variables involved in the information needs of different socio-cultural and professional groups; identification and evaluation of information resources essential to the planning and management of public or private, general or specialized devices, networks and information systems; production of science, technology and innovation indicators for the elaboration of institutional policies. It includes developing studies on the methods for collections analyses, documentary authenticity, reliability of information sources, knowledge of the legislation on intellectual property rights regarding the ways knowledge is produced today. It also includes the study of scientific and technological communication, as well as the dissemination channels, the development of intervention projects in information services, repositories and networks, and in virtual teaching-learning environments.
Professors: Asa Fujino, Francisco Carlos Paletta, José Fernando Modesto, Marcelo dos Santos, Marcos Luiz Mucheroni, Pedro Luiz Côrtes, Rogério Mugnaini and Waldomiro de Castro Santos Vergueiro.

Knowledge organisation
This research line is designed to train professionals in the elaboration of information treatment and retrieval projects, considering the different types of contexts, documents (scientific, administrative, textual, imagery documents) and devices (libraries, information centres or systems, archives, museums ; websites, companies). It includes the analysis and proposition of information organization policies; the knowledge on information representation and retrieval methods, including computational models and the construction of knowledge organization systems (language documentation), based on linguistic, semiotic and terminological theories, supported by information technologies.
Professors: Cibele Araujo Camargo Marques Dos Santos, Johanna W. Smit, Marilda L. Ginez de Lara, Marivalde Moacir Francelin, Nair Y. Kobashi and Vânia Mara Alves Lima.

Prof. Dr. Rogério Mugnaini - Coordenador
Profa. Dra. Ivete Pierucci - Suplente da Coordenação
Profa. Dra. Giovana Deliberali Maimone
Prof. Dr. Francisco Carlos Paletta (suplente)
Profa. Dra. Cibele Araujo Camargo Marques dos Santos (suplente)
Profa. Dra. Lucia Maciel Barbosa de Oliveira (suplente)
Mariana Ramos Crivelente - Representante Discente

Secretariat

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday from 10 am to 12pm and 2pm to 4pm
Telefone: +55 11 3091 8658
E-mail: ppgci.eca@usp.br