Análise de assunto nos contextos tradicional e digital

Abstract

In the domain of Information Science,subject indexing process plays an important role in the Information Retrieval System, which involves two phases: subject analysis and translation into indexing languages. Subject analysis, or conceptual analysis, is the first phase of indexing process, which is divided in three stages: text reading; concepts extracting and determining aboutness Several factors interfere in this process, such as: indexer-related factors (experience, understanding degree, knowledge of the subject); vocabulary-related factors (specificity, syntax, quality of vocabulary); document-related factors (complexity, language); process-related factors (type of indexing, productivity, exhaustivity); environmental factors, noise and ilumination. The general purpose is to identify similarities and differences in information management processes, as for subject analysis and concept translation into indexing languages, in traditional and digital contexts. Subject analysis in the tradicional context is that stage when indexer extracts concepts from documents in order to determine their subjects, with the use of cognition, metacognition, language and its structure and then making use of conventional tools to translate concepts into an indexing language. As for subject analysis, in the digital context, it is similar to the traditional one, using the same techniques and tools. With the advance of technologies, new tools and standards arise, such as metadata, ontologies, to better represent concepts extracted from documents. It is concluded that most digital libraries use the same processes and tools to manage information as traditionallibriaries. These two contexts are observed to have more similarities than differences. and that librarians and indexers are on the rigth way and have a lot ahead with the arrival of the WEB and the Internet