Denna uppsats undersöker hur svenska kontrollerade vokabulärer hanterar inkluderande perspektiv. Svenska ämnesord är en nationellt kontrollerad vokabulär med ämnesord som skapats och administreras av Kungliga biblioteket och som används av svenska bibliotek för indexering. Biblioteken strävar efter stabila söksystem, samtidigt förändras ordens betydelse snabbt. Det är en utmaning för biblioteken att säkerställa hög sökbarhet men undvika att använda ett diskriminerande språk. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur inkluderande perspektiv används i svenska kontrollerade vokabulär. Fyra frågor har formulerats, den första handlar om hur ämnesord om etnicitet och nationalitet är representerade i Svenska ämnesord. De övriga tre frågorna handlar om hur Kungliga biblioteket och andra svenska institutioner arbetar med sina kontrollerade vokabulärs administration samt språklig instabilitet. Med Derridas teorier om dekonstruktion undersöks hur den Andre representeras i Svenska ämnesord, som ingår men skiljer sig från västerländska etniciteter och nationaliteter. Ämnesord som berör den Andre är konstruerade annorlunda, de innehåller mer förklarande kvalificeringar och varianter. Andra utmaningar som administratörer av de kontrollerade vokabulärerna har är att undvika partisk indexering och att upprätthålla ett stabilt system och samtidigt kontextualisera uttryck i ämnesord som kan anses vara diskriminerande. Uppsatsen diskuterar även hur olika kontrollerade vokabulärer är beroende av varandra. / This essay examines how Swedish controlled vocabularies handle inclusive perspectives. Svenska ämnesord is a national controlled vocabulary containing subject headings that is created and administered by The Royal Library and used by Swedish libraries for indexing. Libraries strive for stable search systems, at the same time the meaning of words changes rapidly. It is a challenge for libraries to ensure high searchability but avoid using discriminatory language. The purpose of this essay is to study how inclusive perspectives are used in Swedish controlled vocabularies. Four questions have been formulated, the first one concerns how subject headings about ethnicity and nationality are represented in Svenska ämnesord. The other three questions address how the Swedish Royal Library and other Swedish institutions work with their controlled vocabularies’ administration and linguistic instability. With Derrida's theories of deconstruction the essay examines how the Other is represented in Svenska ämnesord, which is included but differs from western ethnicities and nationalities. Subject headings that concern the Other are constructed differently, they contain more explanatory qualifiers and variants . Other challenges administrators of the controlled vocabularies pointed out are to avoid biased indexing and maintain a stable system and at the same time contextualize expressions in subject headings that could be considered as discriminatory. The essay also discusses how different controlled vocabularies are interdependent.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to contribute to knowledge of what author-assigned keywords add to the indexing of Swedish dissertations in literature. This study had two research questions: 1) What types of keywords do the authors choose? 2) How do the author-assigned keywords compare to the cataloger-assigned subject headings from the controlled vocabulary Svenska Ämnesord (SAO) regarding types of terms, exhaustivity and specificity? Theoretical perspectives for this study come from Domain analysis which is a core paradigm within the research area Knowledge Organization (see e.g. Smiraglia 2015). Within Domain analysis the focus for indexing is the domain, and it is the needs of the domain that shall direct the indexing practice. The dataset of the study contained 34 dissertations in literature published in the Swedish university repository DiVA between 2012 and 2022, that had both author-assigned keywords in Swedish and were assigned sao-subject headings in the Swedish national catalogue Libris. In total 431 author keywords and 195 sao-subject headings were analysed using a modified version of thematic analysis as described by Braun & Clark (2006). The results reveal that the author-assigned keywords show more themes than the subject headings, and indicates higher exhaustivity and specificity. For example, one main theme for the keywords were discipline-related terms, that were often connected to theory/methodology for the dissertations, but the subject headings were lacking this as a main theme. Also names of philosophers and theorists formed a theme for the keywords, but the subject headings did not have this theme. Furthermore the findings show that the subject headings tended to be more general in character than the keywords. From the point of view of Domain analysis it is problematic if the indexing used in the university library databases does not meet the needs of the academic domains. Therefore it is argued in this thesis that either the author-assigned keywords should be better utilised within the national catalogue Libris, or that the policy for professional indexing should be adjusted to better meet the needs of the academic domains.

The main focus of this master’s thesis concerns the relation between subject representation, power and gender. Classification systems and subject heading lists are products of their cultural and social context and some subjects and disciplines are given a greater value than others. Our aim in this thesis is twofold; to discuss and critically analyse the prevailing gender norms that are expressed trough classification systems and subject heading lists and to examine how they manage to represent gender studies as a multidisciplinary subject in theory as well as in practice. We are also discussing the particular problems with the representation of multidisciplinary subjects in general. The analysis is grounded in the field of gender studies, where feminist, masculinity and queer theory are included, and the area of critical classification theory. The classification systems and subject heading list that are discussed here are DDC, SAB, SAO, LCSH and KVINNSAM. In the case of DDC and SAB, the analysis concerns the hierarchal structure and principal arrangement of subjects. The focus in the analysis of SAO, LSCH and KVINNSAM is on the assigned subject headings and the lists’ possibilities to adequately represent gender studies. The result of this study shows that both the systems and the subject heading list have considerable problems with integrating and fully representing gender studies as a multidisciplinary subject. It also shows that the available vocabularies for describing gender and feminist literature are very limited. The practise in indexing and classifying multidisciplinary subjects in general are neither sufficient nor consistent. / Uppsatsnivå: D

<p>This study deals with knowledge organization of feminist research, in bibliographic catalogues and in a Swedish context. The thesis develops a definition of feminist discourse which incorporates but is not limited to feminist research. Feminist research, in turn, is understood as articulating a critical approach aimed at critiquing and changing inequitable gender relations. The thesis analyzes the meaning of a range of feminist perspectives through a close text analysis of feminist PhD-dissertations. Two universal knowledge organization systems: Svenska ämnesord and Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek; and one subject-specific system: Kvinnohistoriska samlingarnas ämnesord, are studied in order to discuss the extent to which they are able to articulate feminist perspectives, as well as how they actually articulate such perspectives in practice. The two universal systems studied tend to marginalize feminist perspectives as forms of knowledge. This thesis interprets this marginalization in the light of these systems’ putative objectivistic and universalistic epistemology and ontology. It is suggested that they privilege disciplinary knowledge over interdisciplinary knowledge forms, and substantive topics over conceptual perspectives. Guidelines for knowledge organizatory practice tend to encourage indexers and classifiers to search for central substantive themes. In this schema, feminism is understood as a field relating to socio-political women’s issues. Feminist knowledge qua knowledge is marginalized by the systems studied, and is at times given a plain wrong classifycation. further, this thesis suggests that the subject-specific knowledge organization system studied: Kvinnohistoriska samlingarnas ämnesord, is only able to deal with feminist research in an incomplete and inadequate way. Although this index is designed to classify texts within the broad subject field of: women’s studies, masculinity studies and gender research, as well as other material relevant to the field, the structure of the index is too simple and does not allow for associative relationships between terms; nor does it define feminist discourse. The premises and guidelines for knowledge organization practice are also under-developed or not well defined. Successful organization of feminist knowledge needs instead to be based on a particular understanding of knowledge and knowledge organization as contextually shaped (and shaping). Feminist literature is first and foremost about expressing feminist discourse qua theme, perspective, and part of the feminist tradition (such as critical, women-centring, and reflexive feminisms) – an observation that needs to be reflected in the knowledge organization.</p>

This study deals with knowledge organization of feminist research, in bibliographic catalogues and in a Swedish context. The thesis develops a definition of feminist discourse which incorporates but is not limited to feminist research. Feminist research, in turn, is understood as articulating a critical approach aimed at critiquing and changing inequitable gender relations. The thesis analyzes the meaning of a range of feminist perspectives through a close text analysis of feminist PhD-dissertations. Two universal knowledge organization systems: Svenska ämnesord and Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek; and one subject-specific system: Kvinnohistoriska samlingarnas ämnesord, are studied in order to discuss the extent to which they are able to articulate feminist perspectives, as well as how they actually articulate such perspectives in practice. The two universal systems studied tend to marginalize feminist perspectives as forms of knowledge. This thesis interprets this marginalization in the light of these systems’ putative objectivistic and universalistic epistemology and ontology. It is suggested that they privilege disciplinary knowledge over interdisciplinary knowledge forms, and substantive topics over conceptual perspectives. Guidelines for knowledge organizatory practice tend to encourage indexers and classifiers to search for central substantive themes. In this schema, feminism is understood as a field relating to socio-political women’s issues. Feminist knowledge qua knowledge is marginalized by the systems studied, and is at times given a plain wrong classifycation. further, this thesis suggests that the subject-specific knowledge organization system studied: Kvinnohistoriska samlingarnas ämnesord, is only able to deal with feminist research in an incomplete and inadequate way. Although this index is designed to classify texts within the broad subject field of: women’s studies, masculinity studies and gender research, as well as other material relevant to the field, the structure of the index is too simple and does not allow for associative relationships between terms; nor does it define feminist discourse. The premises and guidelines for knowledge organization practice are also under-developed or not well defined. Successful organization of feminist knowledge needs instead to be based on a particular understanding of knowledge and knowledge organization as contextually shaped (and shaping). Feminist literature is first and foremost about expressing feminist discourse qua theme, perspective, and part of the feminist tradition (such as critical, women-centring, and reflexive feminisms) – an observation that needs to be reflected in the knowledge organization.