Design thinking: application in university libraries

Abstract

The design thinking (DT) is a human-centered approach, focused on solving real-world problems. Increasingly it has been used in Education and in libraries, DT can help to improve products and services. The aim of this work was to investigate how the use of DT in higher education can contribute to its application in university libraries. A bibliographic search was performed using the Systematic Search Flow method, whose objective is to systematize the search process. A search strategy was defined, which was executed in the ERIC, Scielo, Scopus and Web of Science databases and in the Google Scholar search engine. 13 articles were selected to compose the research, in them the places where the DT was applied, the participants, the purposes, the methods and techniques used, as well as the difficulties and recommendations were identified. Based on the experiences and difficulties reported, university libraries can plan their actions to use DT.