THE CENTRALITY OF THE USER IN MEDIATION STUDIES WITHIN GT3-ENANCIB

Abstract

This study analyzes the role assigned to users in research methodologies on information, reading, and cultural mediation in libraries presented within GT3 of ENANCIB. Methodologically, the investigation is exploratory in nature, adopting a qualitative approach grounded in bibliographic research conducted in the conference proceedings from 2021 to 2025. The corpus, consisting of 15 articles, was analyzed bibliographically based on aspects related to users' and mediators' perceptions. The results indicate that most studies (10) privilege the mediator’s perspective, whereas only four focus on the user’s perception and one considers both. A discrepancy is observed between the theoretical framework, which positions the user as the protagonist of the information appropriation process, and the academic practice reflected in the analyzed studies. This suggests that research in this field still lacks methodologies that effectively place users at the center of analysis. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for future research employing methods capable of capturing processes of meaning-making and social protagonism from the perspective of subject-centeredness, grounded in users’ lived experiences and social contexts.