The imagination of the indexer : How do librarians draw on tacit knowledge when indexing images?

Sammanfattning

The present study explores the prevalence of tacit knowledge - as understood through Michael Polanyi – in the practice of indexing visual material. Furthermore, the study argues against the objectivity ideal present in library-adjacent practices. Indexing through subject analysis is found to represent a practice in which subjectivity, interpretation, and tacit knowing on the one hand; institutional guidelines and norms, standardisation, and controlled vocabularies, on the other; are all present. The study’s theoretical framework is threefold; Theodore R. Schatzki’s practice theory enables an understanding of indexing as a situated and social practice; Birger Hjørland’s domain analysis provides a framework to understand knowledge organisation as shaped by institutional and domain-specific contexts (here: image-workers); and Michael Polanyi's theory of tacit knowledge allows an analysis of the knowing underlying indexing decisions. Through visual elicitation, and semi-structured interviews, with two image-working librarians from New York Public Library, and two from the Swedish National Library, seven tendencies are noted, prevalent in how and why certain indexing decisions presented themselves. These tendencies include times when participants commented on: gaps in used subject heading systems, and how they managed these through hierarchical climbing; a tension between their interpretations of elicited images and available subject terms in KOs; having knowledge of what an elicited image depicted through personal and professional knowledge; awareness of the limits to their knowledge; an understanding of the institutional guidelines and norms (collection logic); and how they transferred knowledge in the case of a new colleague entering the taskforce. The results show that tacit knowledge is an inherent and essential part of the indexing practice of visual material, this alongside the explicit KOs at the participating librarians' disposal.