Estudio observacional del contexto sociocognitivo de la catalogación de matérias em bibliotecas universitárias

A study of the subject indexing process in university libraries is presented, using a socio-cognitive approach to analyze the procedures, difficulties and perceptions of the librarians, users, and managers that take part in the process. Individual and group verbal protocols were applied in the real environment of the cataloguers, the university libraries. The results were the absence of systematic procedures for book subject analysis and representation, the incompatibility of the indexing language, and problems in subject retrieval from the catalog. It is concluded that there is a tendency in catalogs to act as databases. Therefore, the cataloguer should present a level of commitment in his task similar to that of an indexer who works in the production of bibliographic databases.