ÉTICA E RESPONSABILIDADE estudo sobre a representação da homossexualidade no catálogo das bibliotecas da Universidade de Coimbra

Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) reflect the prevailing prejudices of the society in which they are conceived. Consequently, categorizing something is a process subject to change depending on the socio-political climate of each era. The aim of this study is to examine the occurrences of the subject homosexuality in the catalogueof the University of Coimbra (UC) libraries through the notations of the CDU used to represent this concept. Specifically, we intend to: (i) Map the notations attributed by UC librarians to represent the subject homosexuality;(ii) Analyse therole of neutrality in Knowledge Organization, focusing on categorical KOS, especially the CDU;(iii) Evidence some biases of Knowledge Organization Systems, focusing on categorical KOS. As a result, it is believed that the assignment of the notation 616.89, which had the highest number of records, around 200, was influenced by the content of the title, because if the title relates homosexuality to issues of mental illness, as a result of the date of publication and the place of publication, the UC librarians simply reflect the content of the work as a whole. Possible solutions to overcome the weaknesses of KOSpoint, for example, to their use in combination with collaborative indexing tools, or with the creation of controlled vocabularies, such as ontologies and taxonomies.