From the development and administration experiences of RIRC, a project undertaken by LaboMídia/UFSC with the support of CEDES Network/Ministry of Sports, we delimited the use of this digital repository as an object for research of one master's degree dissertation. Thus, we organize this work based on theoretical discussions that involve the information and the knowledge management in the fields of sport and leisure in Brazil, especially, with the principles of the worldwide movement that emphasizes the promotion of open access to scientific information and knowledge. In this context, we investigated how the RIRC was perceived by managers and researchers of the CEDES Network during the first year of the system's operation. The delimitation of this research's problem, created conditions to observe and to ponder over the social and political commitment of the CEDES Network's members, to organize and to make the results of this action accessible. Therefore, we describe, analyze and reflect on the perception of this CEDES Network members in relation to RIRC, in the scope of the information and knowledge management in sport and leisure. We conducted interviews with thirteen members of the CEDES Network and used some statistics of the RIRC and from CEDES Network as data. Because of this structure, this research is characterized as a qualitative case study, this understanding guided us during the gathering, analysis, discussion and interpretation of data. After the construction of the theoretical and methodological structure, we defined four axes of discussions: a) socio-historical context of the building process of the CEDES Network; b) The development process of the RIRC; c) The RIRC as public policy; and d) The RIRC in context of participatory culture. The dialogue between these axes and the theoretical framework legitimize the purpose behind the presentation of the research's findings, which initially highlight the fact that RIRC is perceived by the CEDES members as an important initiative in the framework of public policies in sport and leisure in Brazil. However, less than 20% of the system's full potential was used by the CEDES Network during the period which we perform this research. This indicates that there are profound contradictions between the discourses guided by the ideal qualities of digital repositories and open access, in contrast to the effective practice that should materialize these discourses. Among other considerations, we believe that RIRC is configured as a tool that demonstrates the need to change the culture of the CEDES members, in regards to the production and dissemination of information and knowledge, in order to ensure that the proposal will come about appropriately. This depends mainly on the ME to consider, as a priority, enabling open access of all the information and knowledge of public interest and integrate that into the ministerial policies in the field of sport. Based on scientific literature and on the data from this study, we understand that the fulfillment of a mandate that ensures the self-archiving in RIRC by the researchers of CEDES Network could be a first step. However, the RIRC is an isolated proposal at ME's structure and was not designed to meet all demands of this ministry. This fact supports our understanding that as long as the RIRC is the only solid action in ministry, we can not consider the materialization of the sports' management scheme regarding information and knowledge, as a public policy of the ME.
Sport and leisure; Information and knowledge management; Open access; RIRC; Self-archiving
