Den dolda disciplinen
en domänanalytisk ansats i relation till Idé- och lärdomshistoria genom ämnesrepresentationen i LIBRIS
This thesis aims towards an understanding of information systems and subject representation in relation to academic disciplines. This is achieved by comparing how a discipline, History of science and ideas, represents itself compared with the subject representation of its dissertations in an information system, LIBRIS. The point of departure for this thesis is the domain analytic view of Hjorland which states that the quality in information seeking is enhanced if the subject representation considers the contexts in which documents are produced and used. The importance of concepts such as domain and discipline is discussed. The disciplines view of itself is established by the study of articles written by scholars in the discipline, by how the discipline presents itself on the homepages of five university institutions and by the examination of titles and keywords given to dissertations in the discipline. The information systems representation of the discipline is examined regarding classification codes, subject headings and index terms given to the dissertations of the discipline. This comparison is an attempt to discover possible discrepancies between the two representations. This examination does not find any significant discrepancies between the two representations, as the subject representation does confirm the disciplines view of itself as a discipline that studies the relations between man, society and nature. What it does find, however, is that the subject representation does not, to any greater extent, recognize the discipline as such, as there is little evidence of which context the dissertations originates from. This is then discussed in relation to Hjorlands view that disciplines ought to be regarded as entities in knowledge organization and reflected in information systems.