A noção de assunto e o modelo conceitual Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD)

Abstract

The notion of subject in Library and Information Science is the theme proposed by this research, which is delimited by a corpus that is characterized by a geographic form in specific fields, that marked the literature of the area, from two main influences: Anglo-Saxon and European. The procedural and meaningful character of the information establishes connection with the attributes of the documents, which are worked in whole or in part, and this includes the understanding of construction of sense, rather than the simple reproduction by the application of standards. Thus, the need to understand the notion of subject and, presently, the presence of the conceptual model Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD), created by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is stressed, what is reinforced by the need for understanding about the notion in focus. There is not a single approach to what a subject is, because its understanding varies according to the theoretical influence considered, but given the importance of its manipulation, which results in thematic representation, the research problem consisted in investigating whether the theoretical accumulation on the notion of subject in the process of thematic representation and its methods of realization, developed in different fields of the Library and Information Science area, is reflected in the FRSAD conceptual model. That is: is it possible to evidentiate the relationship between the notion of subject in the FRSAD model and the theoretical development on this notion in the area? The general objective was to investigate and critically analyze the theoretical and conceptual basis that surrounds the foundations of the notion of subject in the FRSAD model, within the framework of the area reference. For that, the methodological path of the research, with a qualitative approach, subsidized the investigation of theoretical elements, resorting firstly to the bibliographic research of the theoretical object – the notion of subject. Thereafter, emphasis on the analysis and interpretation of the empirical object – the FRSAD model – based essentially on Laurence Bardin’s content analysis was given. The analysis, from categories, was modeled in two interlinked stages. The first one was based entirely on converging perspectives for the conceptualization of the notion of subject from the literature in three main moments (Anglo-Saxon, deployment Anglo-Saxon and European), and on the second, on analyzing whether the categories of the first stage give perspective in the face of the articulation of the subject in the FRSAD model. The exploration focused on theoretical moments led to the realization that the FRSAD model does not know the different fields of the Library and Information Science. It reflects, to some extent, aspects of the Anglo-Saxon theory. The subject, as an attribute, is a linguistic unit passible of operation, demanding, therefore, processes of destructuring and structuring, in the form of a documentary message.