Rainbow shelves, shelves with a LGBTQ theme, are becoming popular in Swedish libraries, and may have been created to counteract the poor indexing of the fiction with LGBTQ themes. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the books on this shelf are indexed in one Swedish library. In order to do so we first examine the subject headings list used to index fiction to see what LGBTQ subject headings there are and if they are lacking in any way. Then we examine the representation of these subject headings on the rainbow shelf to see how the shortcomings of the list influence the indexing. We also do a content analysis on the books found to have no LGBTQ subject headings to examine why they have been placed on the shelf. Are there shortcomings in the indexing of these books? We use queer theory to suggest that the shortcomings of the indexing is caused by the underlying heteronormativity of our society. We find that many LGBTQ words are not represented in the subject headings list and that heteronormativity is predominant but only made visible through what does not conform to the norm. The most prevalent LGBTQ subject headings in the rainbow shelf are those concerning homosexuality, while bisexuality and transgender subject headings are barely used at all. We find that the indexing of the books without LGBTQ terms in many cases is lacking, but in others it is a question of how you choose to interpret the book.

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