Digital Libraries: Electronic Bibliographic Resources on Basic Education

Abstract

Studying electronic bibliographic resources for basic education involves thinking about search mechanisms that meet the needs of young users. Through the investigation carried out during the educational research project «Digital libraries», it became evident that the collections explored use a language better suited to higher education. Faced with this problem, the following question arose: What are the criteria for classifying electronic bibliographic resources for basic education? The proposed investigation was non-experimental, with a non-probabilistic sample of case studies; the sample comprised 250 resources from 10 bibliographic collections. The analysis assessed resources according to: accessibility, the curricular axis to which it is addressed, and format; pedagogical, functional, technological and aesthetic aspects. The results show a mean of 3.76, which indicates that the bibliographic collections provide quality resources, although it is necessary to improve educational and functional aspects. Classifying electronic resources for basic education requires the consideration of pedagogical needs, graphical and technological qualities and, especially, the dynamic way in which information is conceived nowadays. This confirms the need to establish a set of indicators that enable teachers to select electronic resources based on basic education curricular axes..