The literature on assigned indexing considers three possible viewpoints—the author's viewpoint as evidenced in the title, the users' viewpoint, and the indexer's viewpoint—and asks whether and which of those views should be reflected in an indexer's choice of terms to assign to an item. We study this question empirically, as opposed to normatively. Based on the literature that discusses whose viewpoints should be reflected, we construct a research model that includes those same three viewpoints as factors that might be influencing term assignment in actual practice. In the unique study design that we employ, the records of term assignments made by identified indexers in academic libraries are cross-referenced with the results of a survey that those same indexers completed on political views. Our results indicate that in our setting, variance in term assignment was best explained by indexers' personal political views.
S. Haikola, and S. Jonsson. Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services, 57 (4):
209-218(December 2007)M3: Article; Haikola, Simon 1; Email Address: simonhaikola@gmail.com; Jonsson, Sara 1; Email Address: saraj80@hotmail.com; Affiliations: 1: Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS), Göteborg University and Högskolan i Borås, Sweden.; Issue Info: Dec2007, Vol. 57 Issue 4, p209; Thesaurus Term: PRIVACY, Right of; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARIES & state; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARY surveillance; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARIES & the Internet; Thesaurus Term: INTERNET access for library users -- Law & legislation; Thesaurus Term: COMPUTER security; Subject Term: SWEDEN -- Politics & government -- 1973-; Subject Term: WEB analytics; Subject Term: NATIONAL security; Subject Term: ELECTRONIC surveillance; Subject Term: CIVIL rights; Subject: SWEDEN; NAICS/Industry Codes: 928110 National Security; People: FOUCAULT, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Political & social views; Number of Pages: 10p; Document Type: Article.