VOL. 21 NO. 4, DECEMBER, 2016
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Text genres in information organization
Marek Nahotko
Abstract
Introduction. Text genres used by so-called information
organizers in the processes of information organization in
information systems were explored in this research.
Method. The research employed text genre socio-functional
analysis. Five genre groups in information organization were
distinguished. Every genre group used in information
organization is described. Empirical evidence for genre group
two was obtained through specific analysis of genres used by
cataloguers cooperating within the Polish union catalogue.
Analysis. A qualitative genre analysis concerning the choice
and description of five groups of genres most important for
information organization was carried out. Most attention
was paid to the second group of text genres, consisting of
vocabularies and rules used in cataloguing.
Results. The text genre system used in information
organization and showing the roles of any specified text
genre group is described. The case of the Polish union
catalogue database helped to present temporo-spatial
dependencies appearing in the regulated genre system.
Conclusions. Information organization involves the
creation of representations of published texts with a variety
of text tools. The creation of these texts and their use
(reading) results in individual knowledge reorganization
(modification) of all people involved in these processes, that is
both writers (including authors of vocabularies, cataloguing
rules and bibliographic records) and readers.
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Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present information
organization activities and practices as text writing and
reading practices. Particular emphasis is put on the
process of cataloguing and indexing as text writing and
reading in information systems such as libraries. In the
past such texts were used in manual systems, such as card
catalogues. Today they are employed in scholarly
communication practice together with the Internet and
computer-mediated communication. In fact, any
information system can be understood as a complex
system of texts and their genres. Genre theory (which
consists of a number of different theories) is the basis for a
new approach to well-known information organization
processes performed manually for a long time, and in a
computerised manner since the 1960s. The author of this
paper is interested in the way texts of different genres are
combined together to support social activities of
information organizers and end-users. How does the
differentiation of their information needs affect the choices
they make as regards the text conventions (genres)? It
appears particularly interesting to analyse text
implementation in genres, the existence of which is almost
unknown to information systems users and, thus, does not
influence their knowledge structures. The discussed texts
are vocabularies, rules and good practice guidelines,
distributed in textual form to a specific community of
professionals. This leads to the question of how these
specific writing and reading practices affect the mediation
efforts of information systems as a whole and particularly
information systems with a role in scholarly
communication.
The basic assumptions of contemporary text genre theory
were created in the 1980s. According to Bakhtin and
Medvedev (Bakhtin and Medvedev, 1985, p. 125), genres
are aggregated meanings serving the discovery and
conceptualisation of reality on the basis of unified social
assessment. Bakhtin (1986, p. 95) states that genres are
types of practical activity, characterised by the way their
utterances are addressed to recipients. Different genres
correspond to different conceptions of the text recipient
(reader), being determined by the area of human creativity
and activities of daily life, to which the utterance is bound.
In contrast, Miller believes that genres relate to
conventional discourse categories based on typified
rhetorical activities; recognised as the activity they acquire
the meaning from, the situation, and the social context in
which the situation has arisen. Genres are thus part of
conventional multi-level structures used in human
communication, beginning at the level of characters and
ending with text genres. The number of genres in use is
unspecified and depends on the complexity and diversity
of the community (Miller, 1984, p. 163). Genre is a part of
the social context where a given text is created,
reproduced, modified and represented.
According to Devitt, the construction of a genre facilitates
the construction of a situation; during the identification of
the genre, assumptions are constructed concerning not
only the form of the text but also its objectives, subject,
author and the assumed reader (Devitt, 1993, p. 577). The
community can be defined by the discourse of membership
instead of by its members individually. This membership is
understood as a set of genres aimed at better defining the
nature of the discourse community, the way the
community better defines the nature of the discourse
(Devitt, 1993, p. 582). Thus, Andersen treats genre as
typified communicative action linking together authors
and readers within the common space of meaning and
activity (Andersen, 2015b, p. 4). Genres and social
activities relevant to them arise because particular social
and institutional arrangements create activity forms
directed by interests and ideologies supporting those
arrangements.
The following part of this paper begins with the review of
earlier research on genres with a focus on information
organization applications of genre theory. This short
review covers research on genre concepts within different
disciplines with special emphasis on library and
information science and new electronic genres. It is
followed by a brief introduction to the methods and
applications used in genre analysis and their similarity to
those used in the analysis of information users' needs.
Next, the application of genres in information organization
is described with a new notion of genre group, an element
of a genre system. Five genre groups in information
organization are described. The essential part of this paper
is on the use of texts in the genre of notes and messages
(four genres are specified) exchanged by information
organizers (cataloguers) within the Polish national union
catalogue. It shows how these genres are used by the
virtual community of cataloguers during online
communication facilitating the shared cataloguing process.
Previous research
The theory of text genres is used in many disciplines,
including linguistics (e.g. Askehave and Swales, 2001;
Swales, 1990), rhetorical theory of genres (e.g. Devitt,
2004; Miller, 1984), including North American new
rhetoric and Australian systemic-functional schools
(Swales, 2009, p. 3), anthropology (Hanks, 1987), cultural
studies (Frow, 2015), media studies (Neale, 1995),
psychology (Mandler, 1984), human-computer interaction
(Vaughan and Dillon, 2006), and librarianship and
information science (Hajibayova and Elin, 2014; Montesi,
2010). Researchers in these and other areas investigate the
use of genres from different perspectives imposed by their
disciplines, defining genre according to their individual
research needs.
Information science studies of genres are focused on
several issues such as knowledge and information
organization, Web design, and digital communication
(Andersen 2008a, p. 343). Yates and Orlikowski(1992, p.
301), for instance, claim that genres used in
communication within an organization support typical
communication activities performed in response to
recurring situations. This conceptualisation of genre acts
as the basis of research conducted by Roussinov et al.
(2001) and Montesi and Navarrete (2008). Vaughan and
Dillon (2006), in turn, believe that genres can be
considered a class of communication events, with a
common set of conventions and rules facilitating
interaction. This is achieved by creating and managing
expectations within the community of creators and
audiences (Vaughan and Dillon, 2006, p. 503). The
appearance of new, digital communication has resulted in
research on new cybergenres, like personal Web pages
(Dillon and Gushrowski, 2000), blogs (Kjellberg, 2009),
online newspapers (Åkesson, Ihlström and Svensson,
2004) or research papers (Puchmüller and Puebla, 2008).
Andersen affirms a social-humanistic turn in information
science since the beginning of the twenty-first century. It
has led to a more interpretive-critical approach to research
(Andersen 2008a, p. 340).
Information science studies indicate that genres have
considerable impact on the representation and
organization of knowledge (Andersen, 2008a; Andersen
2015b; Crowston and Kwaśnik, 2003) and on information
needs fulfilment during information retrieval (Kwaśnik, et
al., 2001; Montesi, 2010; Montesi and Navarrete, 2008;
Montesi and Owen, 2008; Rosso 2005). Beghtol (2001, p.
19) postulates the use of genre analysis to establish the
basis for domain analysis. Genre analysis is a natural
component of domain analysis (Hjørland, 2002).
Crowston and Kwaśnik discover a way to improve
information retrieval with document genres identified and
applied as facets of documents and query representations
(Crowston and Kwaśnik, 2003, p. 346). Genre
identification provides information otherwise difficult to
obtain on the suitability of a document and its conformity
to the situation of the user (Crowston and Kwaśnik, 2003.
p. 350). Foscarini (2013) describes a genre perspective in
the archival domain, particularly in relation to the
understanding of the nature of a record. Andersen (2008a)
contends that the ability to assess the suitability of a
document by identifying its genre is a key argument for
applying genres. Unfortunately, most library and
information science research on the representation of
documents ignores genre-provided information referring
to the purpose of a document and its adjustment to users'
needs (Andersen, 2008a, p. 346).
Research on the use of genres in information and
knowledge organization within the scholarly context is
limited to considering two main problems. The first is the
identification of the genre of catalogued documents aimed
at the improvement of document retrieval efficiency. The
second is the way new electronic genres (cybergenres)
emerge. Research has been conducted on the library and
catalogue genres and this paper continues this research.
Genre analysis