The aim of this two year master thesis is to study the knowledge production within the field of Textile Studies at Uppsala University, with special focus on the use of artifact documentation as a research method. With domain analysis as a theoretical framework, ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as historical and social aspects are studied in relation to the research process. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, observations and text analysis. In the analysis of the knowledge processes in the field, perspectives on tacit knowledge and the concept of documents, are used as a theoretical basis.   In the field of Textile Studies, the artifacts are used as one of the main objects of study, along with archival and pictorial sources. The main epistemological assumptions are that artifact analysis is dependent on a knowledge base, where technical handicraft skills, contextual knowledge and practical experience of object observation are the most important qualifications. The research process reflects these assumptions, where observation and documentation are used as methods of gaining knowledge.

Syftet med den här kandidatuppsatsen är att undersöka barns kunskapsorganisation vid ett skolbibliotek på Umeås glesbygd, utifrån ett barnperspektiv. De metoder som används är: deltagande observation med fokusgrupper som består av barn mellan 9–12 år och informellt samtal med skolpersonal. Resultatet som samlades in från fokusgrupperna presenteras i analysen, som är uppdelad i tre delar. I den första delen av analysen redovisas, i form av olika termer, vilka böcker barnen sa att de ville ha i sitt skolbibliotek. Den andra delen av analysen visar på hur barnen tänkte kring kategorisering av de termer som de själva hade föreslagit, och som redovisas i första delen. I den tredje delen av analysen tolkas barnens tankesätt när de kategoriserade det egna skolbibliotekets böcker. Utöver detta framkommer barnens synpunkter på en förbättrad skolbiblioteksmiljö. Uppsatsen anknyter kontinuerligt till tidigare forskning inom kunskapsorganisation och hämtar inspiration från Linda Z. Coopers forskning om hur ett bibliotek kan byggas upp utifrån barnens perspektiv. Andra influenser till den här uppsatsen är Jihee Beaks forskning kring barns informationssökning och Lena Lundgrens studie om hur barn beskriver böcker. Studien indikerar att barnen uttrycker sig annorlunda från vuxna vad gäller beskrivning av böcker och att de använder visuella intryck för att bedöma en boks innehåll. Resultaten illustrerar barnens konkreta tankesätt, och att de är mindre benägna än vuxna att tänka på ett abstrakt plan. Förhoppningsvis kan studien bidra med en fördjupad inblick i hur barn tänker kring böcker och hylluppställning och därmed förenkla och inspirera arbetet för skol- och barnbibliotekarier. Studien kan bidra till en bättre förståelse för hur utbudet av barnlitteratur vid skolbibliotek kan anpassas till barnens perspektiv.

Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att utreda användargenererad metadata (taggar) som komplement till kontrollerad indexering (ämnesord och klassifikationskoder) av skönlitterära tecknade serier. Studiens relevans grundas på ett behov av att utveckla riktlinjer för att ämnesbeskriva- och skapa sökingångar till tecknade serier via bibliotekskataloger (1), samt att implementering av taggningsfunktioner, via gränssnitt i onlinekataloger (OPACS), blir allt vanligare vilket förutsätter utredning för att överväga en kombination mellan systemen (2). För att besvara studiens syfte utfördes tre delstudier. Först analyserades 48 serietitlar representerade via ämnesord och klassifikationskoder i MARC-format via Libris (I), därefter analyserades de 10 titlarna - med mest metadata från steg I - representerade via taggmoln från LibraryThing (LT) (II) för att slutligen göra en jämförelse mellan de 10 MARC-posterna och taggmolnen (III). Kvalitativt orienterad innehållsanalys har använts för att samla in, dela upp samt jämföra ämnesord-/klassifikationskoder med taggar efter fasetterna: genre, tid, plats, ämne, person och form, framtagna av bl.a. Svensk Biblioteksförening (2004): ”Att Indexera Skönlitteratur”. Aboutness-teori och semiotisk-teori har applicerats för att dels skapa en djupare förståelse för problematiken i att indexera skönlitteratur (-och bild) konsekvent men även för att jämföra systemen (dvs. kontrollerat indexeringssystem med folksonomi-baserat system) ytterligare. Resultatet av studien visade att få termer, via MARC-formaten, representerade fasetter som karaktär, ämne, tid och plats medan taggmolnen från LT innehöll desto mer metadata om seriernas ”innehåll” såsom: karaktärer, (sub)genrer och ämnen. Studien visade även tendenser som att taggarna var desto mer konnotativt präglade samt att de representerade dokumentens aboutness i högre grad, jämfört med klassifikationsnotationerna-/ämnesorden, samtidigt som det skulle behövas mer ingående studier för att närma sig taggarnas egentliga betydelse. Taggarna synliggjorde även ett mer vardagligt språkbruk samtidigt som inkonsistens gällande ordstavning och syntax uppenbarades. För att kunna besvara om användargenererad metadata kompletterar kontrollerad indexering krävs fortsatta studier kring varför användare taggar samt vilka termer som används vid informationssökning av tecknade serier. Analys av metadata från lokala bibliotekskataloger skulle även behöva göras för att ge en mer rättvis bild av hur ämnesordsindexering av tecknade serier ser ut i praktiken.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the subject indexing in the bibliographic databaseKVINNSAM at Kvinnohistoriska samlingarna. the documentation and information centre·of Women's studies in Sweden.The focus of the study is the list of index terms produced at this centre. The paper tries to answer the following questions: a) How has the indexing developed? b) How can it be improved? c) Is there a need for feminist indexing? The method of the study is primarily observations and interviews. Texts and ideas by Birger Hj¢rland, D. C. Blair, Joan K. Marshall and others are used as a background. Women's studies in Sweden is described as a domain of its own. Women's studies often has difficulties in finding its literature because many systems for orga­nising and retrieving knowledge are sexist.The list of index terms is non-hierarchical and consists of about 2000 terms. These have been studied regarding form, scope notes, language, context, etc. The paper also suggests some improvements.

We believed that knowledge organisation of manga and manhwa with homosexual (including lesbian) themes might be a challenge for Swedish public libraries. One of the reasons for this is that these themes in manga and manhwa usually occur in genres not directed towards an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) audience. To see how Swedish public libraries treat such titles and why they treat them as they do, we examined a selection of public libraries, their collections, acquisitions, cataloguing and shelving of relevant titles. The theory used is mainly Grant Campbell’s binarisms, subject access to LGBTQ literature and critical analysis of knowledge organisation. Three methods were utilised: online directory searches, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with librarians. We found a number of relevant titles. Among the selection criterions used, librarians mentioned acquisition requests and title reviews. Several libraries did not perform original cataloguing or did not use subject headings indicating homosexual themes. Some of the subject headings used to indicate such themes were manga terms, others were terms directed towards users seeking literature with homosexual themes. Shelving practises varied slightly, depending, among other things, on what librarians perceived to be the target audience. Some libraries displayed titles with homosexual themes during occasions such as pride festivals. Overall, the libraries we examined claimed not to give any special treatment to titles with homosexual themes. How much work the librarians put into facilitating searches for these titles varied by their personal interest and time available.

An ongoing discussion concerning the possibilities of universal classification based on phenomena rather than on research disciplines has been noticed. In order to discover if this was a limited discussion or the beginning of a major new field of research a study of citations was made using the database Web of Science. In addition, references of the works concerned were studied to find out where the ideas originated. The study of references shows that the ideas originate in a limited number of older published works, some of them well established in Information Science, some of them less generally known. The main ideas commonly used in Information Science are Ranganathan’s facet theories and the work of the Classification Research Group. The less familiar notions include the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann, most of whose works are only available in German. Hartmann’s “stratified” ontology has received particular attention, and some writers argue that it could be combined with suggestions about integrative levels brought forth by the Classification Research Group in order to form a new and improved system of classification. While the survey of articles, references and citations reveals no major impact on the field of Information Science as yet, it also shows that the discussion is likely to continue for some time and that it may influence future research by questioning disciplines and reviving the interest in some theories deserving recognition. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Knowledge organization is perceived as a central, constituting activity defining the notion of libraries. Critique calling for a new theoretical foundation voiced by active researchers within library and information science concerning the current knowledge organization has been utilized as a point of departure. Specifications concerning a new theoretical foundation implied by these critiques are considered within this thesis and theory found in The Order of Things by Michel Foucault proposed as an alternative theory for understanding knowledge organization as a human science where meaning, value and representation, by which the ordering of things is possible, is acknowledged as a result of human activity and history. Thus meaning, value and representation must be perceived as dynamic. An example of implementation of the proposed theory has been achieved by the use of bibliometrics. In order to do this bibliometrics has been discussed in relation to the proposed theory. A bibliometric method, founded by Howard D. White, where one constructs pennant diagrams by the means of term frequencies (tf) and inverse document frequencies (idf) in relation to a seed term, is used here as a method to organize texts dynamically based on human activity. Two main pennant diagrams derived from two different seed terms: Hjorland, B. and Rothstein, B. have been constructed and analyzed using the proposed theory. The results show that dynamic representation and organization of texts via bibliometrics is possible where, amongst other things, the specificity or generality of a text in relation to the seed term is visible. / Program: Bibliotekarie

KvinnSam is stated to have had an important role in laying the foundation of academic gender studies. The initial organization was founded relatively long before the subject entered the academic arena, which places the knowledge organization of the field prior to the authoritative demand for it. This study aims to analyze events, initiated by the library, significant to the academic establishment of gender research from a discursive perspective. By utilizing the concepts of documentality and legitimacy, and cognitive authority the analysis answers the question of what active function and significance the library has had in establishing the academic field of gender studies. The empirical material is gathered from the libraries own archives on historical women associations, published accounts of librarians engaged in the organization and articles and debate pieces published in media. The historical method used results in no produced material but a controlled selection based on the theoretical approach and the placement of the accounts in a contemporary context. The analysis results in a review of both the official and informal constitutive forms the library has been situated in and its effects on legitimacy. It also covers the relations to the academic sphere as cognitive authority and the process of making an uninstitutionalised subject field considered veracious science. The most valuable conclusions are the library’s function to describe and value knowledge and thereby declare their scientific relevance, as well as the discursive significance of stating the field as a possible research domain by creating an academic infrastructure for it.

This thesis aims to study how the assignment of subject headings, from the Swedish subject headings list, in the Swedish national catalog Libris relates to works of marginalized groups from an intersectional perspective. The marginalized groups represented in this study are LGBTQ as well as racified. With the term radical cataloging as the background for this thesis, I have categorized five pairs of opposite words that were the bases for my keyword search and then analyzed the subject headings for the books that my keyword searches resulted in. Using Derrida's theories of deconstruction and the perception of The Other, I have investigated which subject headings are used to describe the marginalized groups and whether these subject headings can be problematic from an intersectional perspective. The conclusion is that, although both groups are represented by a variety of subject headings, they are not always used in a correct context. There is also a lack of several subject headings which would work towards an inclusion of these marginalized groups.

Abstract Genre separation has been common for childrens and youth fiction in Swedish public libraries, but genrefication for adults is still under lively discussion. Fantasy literature is a good example of fiction that has actually been separated for children, young people and adults for about 30 years. It therefore serves as a good example in a study about fictional genre separations. The aim of this study is to investigate how librarians determine the genre of fantasy books, how they organize fantasy sections in libraries and how they argue about genre separation and subgenres of fantasy literature. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews with six librarians with responsibility for fantasy sections at six different large and medium-sized public libraries in Sweden. Gabriel Naudés ideas of how to arrange books in a library was used as a theoretical framework to analyse the empirical material. The results of this study show that there are a variety of ways to organize a fantasy section in a public library. It shows that genre separation for fantasy literature is still developing in the public libraries surveyed. It also shows that fantasy literature in its classical form is relatively easy to genrefy, while subgenres are a little bit more difficult. In addition, it appears that the argumentation about genre separations shows a mostly positive attitude towards these, and that these separations are a good tool for readers to find books. Finally, it shows that the user-friendly perspective is strong in the libraries surveyed, and that well-thought-out fantasy sections and genre separations increase interest in the literature that is highlighted.