Den heterosexuella bibliotekarien
Om BTJ, folkbibliotek och indexering av gaylitteratur
This Master?s Thesis examines the subject indexing of all Swedish gay fiction published from year 2000 until 2007. This is done from a queer theoretical- and domain analytical perspective. The study is conducted in the catalogue BURKsök created by BTJ which is the largest library media company in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine the heterosexual norm in fiction indexing and to study to what extent gay fiction is to be found by subject. Asking research questions about the vocabulary available in the subjects headings list used by BTJ, the description of gay fiction in BURK-sök and the influences this has on the indexing of gay fiction in Swedish public libraries. A quantitative study is conducted by gathering and analysing the subject headings given gay fiction in BURK-sök and a random selection of public libraries using their service. Results show that the indexing of gay fiction in BURK-sök to a large extent do not describe the gay-theme of the book and that the libraries that buy their subject headings from BTJ most often do not change the headings. The study concludes that there is a heterosexual norm in fiction indexing and that this has a negative effect on the retrieval of gay fiction by subject.