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).

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Published

2011-11-02