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Conceptual Analysis

Concepts, or subjects, are the principal ideas represented or discussed in a work. Conceptual analysis refers to determining what a document is about and selecting concepts that will be of interest to the potential community of users.

In determining the subject content of a document, indexers should scan the text to ensure that no useful information is overlooked. They should pay particular attention to titles, summaries, tables of contents, chapter headings, introductions and conclusions. Titles alone are usually insufficient for determining the main subject content since titles of UN documents are often very general or non-distinctive. The object of the document is usually stated in the introductory sections, while the final section generally states how far the aims were achieved; it is also important to scan annexes and appendices, which often contain useful information that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Indexers must select the concepts that best express the subject content of the document. In addition to determining the main subject or subjects, the indexing process also involves determining and selecting secondary concepts that may be useful in searching for specific information in UN documents or for bringing out aspects of main concepts. In doing so, indexers should constantly bear in mind potential users and the queries that may be put to the information system. They should ask themselves such questions as:

• Which concepts in the document might be interesting to users of the information system?

• How would users construct searches to find the document?

• Which indexing terms and combinations of terms would best anticipate their searches?

Of course, not all the ideas expressed in a document can be considered subjects. Some may be concepts that are simply mentioned, or used only as examples.

Indexers should take care to avoid selecting words in the text that are only references or mentions and not really subjects of a document, especially since users now have the option of full-text searching in ODS for keywords that are not necessarily subjects of documents. Indexers should ask themselves such questions as: Is this really a subject of the document, or is it only a reference or mention? Would potential users find enough information to justify selecting this concept as a subject of the document?

In analyzing subject content and selecting concepts, indexers should always bear in mind three important principles of the indexing process: exhaustivity, specificity and consistency.

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Exhaustivity

Exhaustive analysis is advisable, for instance, when a document deals with one of the UN's main subject areas for which a very large body of documentation exists (such as development, human rights, peacekeeping or international security), so that subjects are assigned for the various specific sub-topics that would normally be brought out as primary subjects of other works.

The level of exhaustivity may also vary depending upon the type of document: for instance, UN resolutions and decisions are analyzed at the highest level of exhaustivity, with subjects assigned for each significant operative paragraph; substantive reports with chapters on different sub-topics might have subjects assigned for each chapter; while procedural documents such as work programmes or agendas, where the main subjects are corporate or conference names, would be assigned a minimal number of topical subject terms (if any), and restricted documents that are not available to most users would usually be indexed at a minimal level of exhaustivity.

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Specificity

This concept refers to how precisely the documentary language describes the subjects and concepts in a document; its purpose is to ensure that a maximum number of the documents retrieved in a search will be relevant to the user. Concepts should be identified as specifically as possible, that is, at least as specifically as the documentary language allows and the purpose of the users allow. For example, a document on disarmament education would be indexed with the term Disarmament Education, but not the terms Disarmament or Education; a document concerning earthquakes would be indexed with the term Earthquakes and not the broader term Natural Disasters; documents on the work of the International Law Commission in general would be indexed with the term International Law, while the Commission's documents dealing with a specific topic such as diplomatic protection would be indexed with the term Diplomatic Protection, not the general term International Law.

Sometimes a topic can only be represented at the desired level of specificity by a combination of terms available in the documentary language; for instance, the specific topic «multimodal transport operators» is described by the combination of terms
MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT and TRANSPORT OPERATORS.

New terms may need to be introduced in the documentary language when works deal with topics that are more specific than any existing terms (see also Part II, Term Selection).

Indexers should use judgement in applying the indexing policy of specificity, bearing in mind the search requirements of users. If a specific term is not likely to be known by many users and there is not a cross-reference from a term that is likely to be used, indexers may assign a broader term that is likely to be searched, in addition to the narrower term.

Example:
Document concerning Maori:

650 17 $a INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
650 17 $a NEW ZEALAND
650 17 $a MAORI

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Consistency

The quality of indexing can be measured in part by consistency. It is achieved through the agreed standardization of the terms to be used to index a document. Each document should, of course, be analyzed independently of its relation to other documents, so that no important subject will be overlooked, and no subject irrelevant to the document at hand will be included. However, indexers need to ensure that they are consistent in the approach taken to similar types of documents, to documents in similar subject areas and in the concepts selected for a series of documents.

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