A CRITICAL ANALYSE OF THE ETHICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF INDEXING POLICIES

Abstract

This article analyzes the incorporation of ethical and cultural warrant into indexing policies, with the aim of identifying gaps and opportunities in the construction of representations that are sensitive to cultural diversity, particularly with regard to issues affecting historically marginalized groups. Methodologically, a qualitative, documentary approach is adopted, utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis based on Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. The corpus consists of five university library policies, examined based on their lexical choices, adopted principles, and forms of legitimization of the organizing discourse. Analysis of the documents reveals that the policies are guided by the assumptions of technical neutrality, standardization, terminological control, and the efficiency of information retrieval systems. This orientation is important but does not address the ethical and cultural challenges involved in thematic representation. Elements that would indicate a concern with aspects related to cultural diversity, biases, erasures, and other social effects of subject representation remain largely unaddressed in the documents. It is considered that an indexing policy sensitive to the diversity of the university community needs to expand its safeguards, assuming an ethical and critical commitment in the process of subject representation.