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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-517577 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Vahlne, Anna |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 893 |
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