Sponsors:

1
Bias in indexing languages theoretical
approaches on feminine issues
Suellen Oliveira MILANI - São Paulo State
University - UNESP (BRAZIL) José Augusto Chaves
GUIMARÃES - São Paulo State University - UNESP
(BRAZIL)
Sponsors
2
Research background

• Main project
• Ethical questions in KOR (multicultural contexts)
• Sub-projects
• Ethical values in KOR
• Bias in KOR (feminine questions, gay questions,
  religious questions)

3
Research background

• KR Bias in feminine questions
• Part 1 Theoretical approaches
• Part 2 Analysis of 4 Brazilian indexing
  languages (University of São Paulo Subject
  Headings Brazilian Library of Congress Subject
  Headings Brazilian Law Classification Brazilian
  national Library Subject Headings)

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Purpose
To analyze how dialogical are the current
theoretical approaches on bias in feminine issues
in order to contribute for a preliminary
systematization of them.
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Contents
1. The non-neutral nature of knowledge
representation (KR) 2. The three dimensions of
KR 3. The question of bias in KR 4. Bias in KR
the universe of feminine studies 5. Conclusions
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1. The non-neutral nature of knowledge
representation (KR)

• Knowledge representation is a constant (and
  changing) decision-making process
• it embodies a power the power to name (Olson,
  2002)
• it is carried out by human beings who have their
  own idiossincratic contexts
• it mediates other idiossincratic contexts (the
  author and the users)
• So, it must search for reliability in order to
  avoid favoring certain interests and values
  rather than others, specially in multicultural
  contexts.

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1. The non-neutral nature of knowledge
representation (KR)
In other words... Methodologies should be
developed aiming at not only avoiding bias but
also at detecting it in knowledge representation,
once the unavoidable subjective influence of the
information professional makes it impossible to
be a neutral process.
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1. The non-neutral nature of knowledge
representation (KR)

• KR involves five dimensions of ethical
  commitment
• To the user
• To the organization (information system)
• To the information itself
• To the infrmation profession and
• To the professional him/herself.
• (Guimarães, 2000)

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2. KR and its three dimensions

• Processes
• e.g. Subject analysis, vocabullary controlling,
  classifying
• Tools
• e.g. thesauri, lists of subject headings,
  classification schemes
• Products (surrogates of knowledge)
• e.g. indexes, subject entries, notations
• Bias can occur in any of these 3 KR dimensions.

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3. The question of bias in KR
Bias can be conceived as a negatively
loaded word, as something to be avoided or
minimized (Hjørland, 2008, p. 256) Bias can be
observed in KR usually related to gender,
sexuality, race, age, ability, ethnicity,
language and religion matters, and act as limits
to the representation of diversity and to
effective library service for diverse populations
(Olson, 2002, p. 7).
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3. The question of bias in KR
Bias in KR can act as real obstacles to
cultural warrant in SKOS (Beghtol, 2002,
2005) and, as a consequence to a transcultural
ethics of meditaion (García Gutierrez, 2002).
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3. The question of bias in KR

• The polissemic nature of bias (sesgos)
• Tendency
• Prejudice
• Misrepresentation
• Proselitism
• Lack of specificity
• Information detours

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3. The question of bias in KR
Bias in KR, besides violating individual rights,
also inhibits the users, pushing them aside, due
to a lack of reliability and even to an identity
problem towards the representation criteria.
(Guimarães, 2006).
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4. Bias in KR the universe of feminine studies

• In KR processes and tools (Olson, 2002, 2006,
  2007)
• In UDC (Santos, Madina, Serra, 1999 Morán Suárez
  Rodriguéz Bravo, 2001)
• In lists of subject headings and in thesauri
  (López-Huertas, Torres Barité, 2004 Rodríguez
  Bravo, 2007).

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4. Bias in KR the universe of feminine
studies Theoretical background
The inclusion of minority groups in accordance to
its condition, be it ethnical, linguistic,
political, religious, national, ideological,
social or economic condition, emphasizes the need
of adequacy (place, society, user and moment), of
up-to-dating and of defining the elaboration
criteria (Caro Castro San Segundo Manuel,
1999). It is necessary to think of an ideal
model of knowledge organization for each domain
(López-Huertas, Torres, Barité, 2004), once
different domains in different cultures have
specific informational needs and require
different kinds of organization and different
ways to get information (Beghtol, 2002).
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4. Bias in KR the universe of feminine
studies Theoretical background
The limits of the system (and consequently its
inclusions and exclusions) are defined by the
selection of concepts to be named and the
selection of terms of these concepts often
introduces blatant biasses or, more commonly,
subtle, insidious marginalizations. (Olson,
2002) The degree of terminological precision can
be a reliable indicator of the level of
development of this theme in different cultures.
(López-Huertas Torres Ramírez, 2005)
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4. Bias in KR the universe of feminine
studies Mapping the problems
Gender subject representation is mostly related
to sexuality (specially to homosexuality), family
life (including maternity) and personal
relations. Women treated as exceptions to
masculine norms (Olson, 2002) Women issues
treated isolated, separated from knowledge as a
whole (Olson, 2002) Women issues omitted. (Olson,
2002) General terms in the masculine form (as
well as masculine terms in the plural form to
refer to both men and women) (López-Huertas
Torres Ramírez, 2005) Woman as the subject of
anticonception (López-Huertas Torres Ramírez,
2005) Nominals as a tendency to create feminine
descriptors and to omit their correspondent
masculine descriptors. (López-Huertas Torres
Ramírez, 2005) Rare presence of women in
traditional indexing languages, mainly due to the
use of masculine as universals (Rodríguez Bravo,
2007) Rare presence of women in traditional
indexing languages due to the fact that the
knowledge representation discourse have
maintained feminine sexist stereotypes,
presenting an anacronic image of women.
(Rodríguez Bravo, 2007)
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4. Bias in indexing languages in the universe of
feminine studies some contributions for a
preliminary checklist
In what other subject contexts than sexuality,
family life and personal relations are feminine
issues considered? Are femine issues are
considered in equal basis or as exceptions to
masculine ones? Is there a well-ballanced
approach of both feminine and masculine forms for
the different subjects? Are there feminine
issues omitted? Are masculine forms used as
universals? If it happens, it is importante to
differentiate linguistic and idiossincratic
reasons. Are feminine issues treated isolated,
separated from knowledge as a whole? Is there a
tendency to create feminine descriptors and to
omit their correspondent masculine descriptors?
Are there evidences that feminine sexist
stereotypes, presenting an anacronic image of
women have been maintained?
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Conclusions
On the process of creating a indexing language to
base studies on women, one has to take into
account how to represent the masculine. There is
a tendency to avoid descriptors which use the
word woman/women as the nuclear element. Once an
information system reveals a type of articulation
of a certain domain, special attention should be
given to resources such as authorized/non-authoriz
ed descriptors/subject headings (USE, UF, see),
related terms (RT, see also) and scope notes
(SN), because they transcend the technical
dimension and play an important social role.
(Milani et al., 2009)
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Conclusions

• Rodriguez Bravo (2007) presents some suggestions
  of actions that may minimize the problem
• insertion of feminine forms without hiding the
  masculine ones - to make efforts to eliminate
  sexist stereotypes and masculine terms as false
  general terms from indexing languages, searching
  for a balance between the presence of both
  feminine and masculine
• insertion of notes (like Scope Notes) which allow
  the use of the feminine form and/or the use of
  headings/sintagmatic descriptors to distinguish
  the masculine form the generic, when there is no
  other option and
• insertion of gender qualifiers along with the
  headings/descriptors, being (W) and (M), when
  the subject does not represent humanity in
  general.

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Conclusions
Since KR, as an activity which aims at making
information available to all and any kind of
user, it must ensure that every user, without
distinction, is able to recognize himself/herself
represented in the system. If this does not
occur, the system will have failed the system
will not have fulfilled the expectations of the
user it will have violated the users rights and
moral values, pushing him/her aside. As a
consequence, bestowing a naming to information is
a quite complex representation knowledge activity
since the act of subject labeling leads to
creating an identity (Olson, 2002) Information
professionals should consider - and be careful
with - their effective power to name (Olson,
2002) when they decide what to represent and what
to leave unnamed, because a broad and deep set of
moral values (as well as problems derived from
their negation) are effectively (and sometimes
dangerously!) involved (Guimarães et al., 2008).
In a society which intends to be politically
correct and socially inclusive, attitudes towards
stigmas should be modified, and indexing
languages, taken as tools of knowledge
representation, is a fertile field for it.
22
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• THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

suellenmilani_at_hotmail.com guima_at_marilia.unesp.br
Sponsors