The Power to Name: Locating the Limits of Subject Representation in Libraries

In this preface I will include explanations of three factors: the intended audience of this book, the structure of the book, and the acknowledgement of many who contributed to its fruition. The Power to Name is intended for two audiences: those interested in knowledge organization and those interested in theoretical study of representation. These two groups come from the perspective of the structure and principles of organization and from the perspective of understanding the cultural ramifications of naming. The first may be those who develop subject representation schemes for a wide range of purposes and those who apply those schemes. They may be librarians, information scientists, web developers or knowledge managers. The second group are likely to be feminist, poststructural and postcolonial theorists who explore the construction of meaning. It is my hope that both of these audiences will find the case of subject representation in library catalogues illuminating in a much wider sense. I have tried to include a modicum of explanation for each audience while avoiding over-explanation for either. This approach will require some patience and some close reading from each? The intellectual structure of the book is introduced in the first chapter. However, in a book on organization of knowledge and information it is important to also explain its internal syndetic structure. I have used some somewhat unconventional approaches. The book contains a fair number of 'manual hyperlinks' - references to earlier discussions of a topic in the form of "see also page . . . " referrals.