In the first half of the 20th century, Brazil began to build up and maintain a scientific and technological infrastructure, with the creation of universities and science and research institutes. After the Second World War, the flow of information worldwide increased and the organization of scientific information became increasingly important for development. In this context, the newly created United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sought to stimulate bibliographic organization worldwide.
In the early 1950s, UNESCO, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and the CNPq began preparations for the creation of a bibliographic center in Brazil with the aim of boosting national scientific and technological activities. Librarians Lydia Sambaquy and Jannice Monte-Mor visited the main libraries and documentation centers in Europe and the United States to look for organizational models.
In 1954, with the support of the Brazilian government, the Brazilian Institute of Librarianship and Documentation (IBBD) was created and set up in Rio de Janeiro, which became part of the CNPq's organizational structure. Among its objectives, the institute sought to promote bibliographic and documentation services, establish exchanges with international technical-scientific documentation institutions and develop training and further training courses in Library Science and Documentation.
Its first president was Lydia Sambaquy, who was IBBD's director for 11 years. In 1956, IBBD started the Scientific Documentation Course. At the specialization level, the course was a pioneering postgraduate course in the field of bibliography and documentation in Brazil and Latin America, and opened up a new field of professional action. The institute sought to provide scientific and technological information to researchers who requested it and guided librarians from different regions of Brazil in providing scientific information services to the academic community.
"The founding of Ibict at that time was very important because there was a huge volume of information and it was dispersed and disorganized. The IBBD began to organize scientific knowledge by area and was fundamental to the scientific and technological development of that time. It helped Brazil to be seen as a country that was at the forefront of the field, at the forefront of this issue. And vanguardism became the keynote of Ibict," says Cecília Leite.
Soon the IBDD would also stand out for its innovation. The first copying machine from Xerox do Brasil, a company founded in 1965, was installed at the IBBD in December 1966. In 1968, the IBBD was the first body in Latin America to have automated information systems, as well as automating its traditional services. In that year, the institute launched the first Brazilian Bibliography formed by an automated process. For some historical thinkers in the field of information in Brazil, this event was a founding milestone of Information Science in the country.
The 1970s were marked by a reorganization of science and technology activities in the country, with the strengthening of public policies for scientific and technological development. In the field of information, the advent of computers and electronics changed paradigms and opened up new possibilities.
In 1970, librarians Célia Ribeiro Zaher and Hagar Espanha Gomes, then president and vice-president of IBBD, created the first Master's course in Information Science in South America, in an agreement with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), opening doors to the field of information science studies and the training of professionals in the area. Two years later, the IBBD created the journal Ciência da Informação, the first scientific journal in the field in Brazil.
In 1976, the IBBD was renamed Ibict and in 1980, the institute moved its headquarters from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. In 1985, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) was created and in 2000, Ibict became subordinate to the ministry. Ibict was then consolidated as the body that would coordinate science and technology information activities in Brazil, with services aimed at the academic community, the research sector, the productive sector and the government.
Brazil
Implemented
