Gender issues in the catalog of the Library System of the Federal University of Ceará: a proposal for term revision

Abstract

It deals with a study on gender issues in the catalog of the Library System of the Federal University of Ceará (SiBi-UFC). The objective of this article is to address gender issues in the SiBi-UFC catalog, particularly concerning subject headings that include the word "man," aiming to outline a review and suggest terms for the maturation of gender-related terminological activities. The methodology is characterized by an exploratory, bibliographic, documentary, and qualitative study of the SiBi-UFC catalog, defining as data collection tools the documentary analysis through a search for the term "man" in the SiBi-UFC catalog and in the subject headings (Library of Congress). For data analysis, content analysis is used, constructing four categories: Human Beings; Disciplines; Mixed; Others. The study concludes that there is a need for improvement in the SiBi-UFC catalog regarding gender issues in the following aspects: avoiding the use of generic gender terms, such as "man"; avoiding the adjectivation of terms through the use of feminine or masculine forms; duplication of authority records from various sources in the catalog, i.e., the inclusion of more than one authority record from DeCS and LCSH that are actually synonyms; gender bias through the maintenance of terms or "see" references that include the word "man”.