Bias na Representação de Assunto: Uma Discussão de Oposições Binárias nos Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD)

• Ano de defesa: 2014
• Autor(a) principal: Milani, Suellen Oliveira [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ciência da informação; Representação do conhecimento (Teoria da informação); Linguagem documentária; Organização da informação; Organization of information
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/110388

Subject representation presupposes a power supported by conventional processes and tools for the construction of products − the document surrogates, which will enable the user to have access to the desired information. However, document surrogates may be constructed with bias in two contexts: in a negative context, they may introduce bias by leaving out diverse features, disenfranchising groups and topics (OLSON, 2002b) or by conveying inclinations, detours or prejudices. In a positive context, slanting or tendency aimed to ensure specificity to a particular community of users can be perceived. Relevant questions arise from this polissemic scenario: how are biases composed and constructed and how do they act in subject representation from a theoretical point of view? Considering that the literature in Library and Information Science lacks studies on these issues, we propose a critical discussion in the field of information organization in order to situate, define, and characterize bias in subject representation. This dissertation is exploratory and documentary and adopts a mixed methodology based on Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FROHMANN, 1994) and poststructuralist epistemology, as we are not searching for universal truths, but for another way to understand subject representation and the document surrogates constructed by librarians. Deconstruction (OLSON, 1996, 2001a, 2002b) was the method used to descentralize the binary opposition “neutrality versus special interests”. Thus, we have on one hand the librarian’s belief to avoid interference from his moral values while pursuing a supposed impartiality and, on the other hand, his need to make value judgments to better represent specific discursive communities. Binaries were descentralized using the Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD): A Conceptual Model, and the relations of power as well as the underlying...