Talande ord : En jämförande studie av taggar och kontrollerade ämnesord för indexering av skönlitteratur

Sammanfattning: How do you summarize the content of a fictional work, let’s say Lord of the Rings, into a few "telling" words that may represent it? This master’s thesis is a comparative study of how library users’ freely chosen tags/keywords deviate from controlled vocabulary made by professional indexers when representing fiction. The thesis answers four main questions:  Do the tags that the library users give fictional works correspond to the categories used in professional indexing in Sweden?  Do the tags follow the standards for vocabulary, semantics and syntax used when indexing professionally?  Do the tags add something to document representations?  Are there differences between the tags used for adult fiction and the tags used for children’s literature? With a starting point in indexing theories of Frederick W. Lancaster, Annelise Pejtersen, and the semiotic theory of the indexing process of Jens-Erik Mai, 383 tags from totally 70 fictional works are analyzed. The tags come from the online catalogue of Umeå public library, accessible through the website www.minabibliotek.se. The results show tendencies of the tags corresponding to a great extent with categories used in the controlled vocabulary Att indexera skönlitteratur (Indexing fictional works). However, some tags form a separate category, which may be described as a Reading experience- category. The tags also add abstract terms to the online catalogue.