A domain-analytic perspective on sexual health in LCSH and RVM

Authors

  • Jill McTavish London, Ontario, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7152/nasko.v3i1.12793

Abstract

This paper analyses and compares the treatment of sexual health in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Répertoire de vedettes-matière de l’Université Laval (RVM) using three of Bowker and Star’s (1999) infrastructural inversion techniques: practical politics, convergence, and resistance. Our findings reveal that neither LCSH nor RVM offer a holistic representation of sexual health (practical politics), that LCSH’s topical representation of sexual health limits access to relevant material (convergence), and that the enhancement of LCSH through user-added content could improve but not replace these systems (resistance).

Downloads

Published

2011-11-02

Issue

Vol. 3 (2011): Proceedings from North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization

Section

Papers

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).