Health information in the Congresso Brasileiro de Biblioteconomia e Documentação: a historical perspective

Abstract

Scientific communication through academic events offers opportunities for collaboration and the exchange of experiences among individuals from the same field or related disciplines. In this regard, the Brazilian Congress of Librarianship and Documentation (CBBD) fosters the continuous advancement of knowledge areas through its programming. However, in its current thematic structure, the congress lacks a specific track dedicated to the health field—an area that presents unique challenges and for which many librarians feel underprepared through undergraduate education alone. This article aims to analyze the presence of health-related research within the congress proceedings and to investigate which thematic tracks have absorbed these publications. To this end, an exploratory, quantitative, and qualitative study was conducted through bibliometric and content analysis. The findings indicate that public institutions and specialized centers are the primary contributors of health-related papers to the CBBD over the years, with notable participation from FIOCRUZ, BIREME, and public universities such as UFRJ and UFMG. Furthermore, the study identified that health information studies are dispersed across various working groups. These works can be categorized into six thematic areas: Health Information and Clinical Practices; Scientific Communication and Research Evaluation; Health Education and Information Literacy; Services and Management of Specialized Libraries; Information Technologies and Innovation; and Inclusion, Diversity, and Humanization. The absence of a dedicated working group focused on health information disperses the academic output, hindering in-depth discussion and knowledge sharing among professionals and researchers in the field.