Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a domain analysis of Section for Maps and Pictures at Uppsala University’s Library and investigate its business, collection and knowledge organization. Birger Hjørland’s socio-epistemological domain analytic paradigm is applied. As methods, Hjørland suggests eleven approaches, and from them he emphasizes especially the importance of the historical and epistemological approaches. In this paper three questions are analysed. The first one concerns how the business at this section is managed; the second concerns the collection’s material types and its historical background; the third one concerns metadata used for cataloguing in the picture database and the reason for the delay to establish such a database. To answer these questions, notes from interviews, observations, study trips and documents about the section were used as primary sources. Observation, comparative method, interview, analysis of document and domain analytic method were used as methods to collect sources and perform the analysis. The analysis is focused on library and information scientific aspects. The study proves that Section for Maps and Pictures’ knowledge paradigm origins in library tradition, its perspective and principles, and is furthermore influenced by international and national decisions, outlines and needs. It states that cataloguing and digitalizing of collections at this section follows the international standards. As one of Sweden’s leading institutions for cultural heritage, Section for Maps and Pictures contains a large amount of unique and various cultural property. Section for Maps and Pictures is currently making progress to make their valuable collection accessible by Internet. This step is considered as a significant contribution to stimulate user-friendliness, education, preservation of materials and even democracy. This paper is published as a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science at Uppsala University in Sweden.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide in-depth knowledge by exploring how image cataloguing provides a context for expressions related to sex, gender, and queerness through metadata and textual descriptions within library databases. This thesis examines how normative conceptions related to sex, gender, and queerness affect the praxis of image cataloguing and how the material’s retrievability is influenced by these aspects. To examine how biases and preconceptions about sex, gender, and queerness are expressed through metadata and descriptive cataloguing the study focuses on catalogued portrait photographs, especially images portraying unknown individuals. The conclusions of this study are that descriptions of images portraying unknown individuals are heavily characterised by a binary view of sex and gender. Unknown individuals are categorised as women or men based on outer appearances, and not in a sex/gender neutral way. Since interpretations are based on clothing, hairstyles, accessories et cetera and not the naked body it may be argued that gender is being categorised, and not necessarily sex. If gender is to be understood as a social construction not attached to any specific physicality it may be expressed in any way by anyone. The assumption of being able to place people in sexed categories based merely on their appearances may therefore be questioned. A further conclusion is that queerness isn’t included when images are being catalogued. The study however shows that heteronormative assumptions may be traced in the way images are described. It may also be concluded that describing portrait photographs mainly through aspects related to sex/gender ignores other informative aspects of them as images, making them less retrievable for users. This is a two years master's thesis in library and information science.