The contribution of the observation of the textual structure of books to subject cataloguing: a case study in the UNESP university libraries

Abstract

The indexing is a kind of description whose aim is to
establish concepts expressed in a document and
representing them according to a documentary language.
There are elements that can contribute to a
more complete selection of terms that will represent
the document, like the observation of its textual structure
and the context where the indexing professional
acts. The analysis of the book textual structure can be
carried out in a way that facilitates the indexing, as
the professional can foresee the parts of the text
where he localizes and identifies the more representative
terms of the textual content. In such a way,
it is intended to comprehend and inquire, with the
applying of Verbal Protocol, the use that Unesp libraries’
indexers do from the textual structure during the
determination of subjects in such a way as to obtain
the disclosure of their procedures, difficulties and
restrictions through the externalization of thoughts
during the recording of the indexing task. From the
data analysis, it was possible to find out that the right
hand page, the back of the title page, the chapters
and other parts of the book’s structure provided the
greater number of terms, becoming the most important
ones for the indexing task.