Heritage and memory of university libraries in southern Brazil

Documents related to core activities of university libraries that seem common or unofficial –such as user education campaigns, old catalogs, outdated manuals, among other examples– constitute their documentary heritage and must be preserved in order to provide memories. The memory of university libraries, provided by these historical documents, prevents the knowledge generated in their routine from being forgotten and values the commitment of its professionals and users for education, science, and culture. The aim of this article is to present the results obtained by an investigation into the reality of preserving historical documents in public university libraries in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Data collection took place in two stages, one based on faceto- face interviews and on-site observation, and the other based on the analysis of the websites of the selected libraries. The interpretation of the results shows that a large part of the documentary heritage of these libraries did not receive preservation measures as historical documents, which can weaken the formation of memories about university libraries.