Jenny Bergenmar

QUEERLIT database: Metadata Development and Searchability for LGBTQI Literary Heritage

An investigation of LGBTQI in Swedish literary history is hampered by the fact that to date, there are no broad scholarly inventories of such literature. Research on indexation has also revealed problems in relation to representation. The systems and thesauri in use are not fitted for describing LGBTQI themes, motifs, or characters. The purpose of this project is twofold: to develop methods for the identification and indexation of LGBTQI literature, serving to enable further research within the field, and to create a subdatabase of LGBTQI literature in LIBRIS. The project has four specific aims: 1) developing a thesaurus for indexing LGBTQI literature in collaboration with KvinnSam, and mapping this to existing indexing systems 2) identifying LGBTQI fiction in collaboration with an advisory board consisting of experts in Swedish LGBTQI literature 3) constructing a subdatabase in LIBRIS containing bibliographic records of LGBTQI literature in collaboration with the Swedish National Library and KvinnSam 4) making the subdatabase available through a separate interface allowing for more specialized searches than LIBRIS does and linking the entries to open data. Since LGBTQI in historical texts is often expressed indirectly or with other concepts than the current, the project will also deal with the methodological problems arising from the application of modern subject headings to older literature.
Grant administrator
University of Gothenburg
Reference number
IN20-0013
Amount
SEK 6,723,000
Funding
RJ Infrastructure for research
Subject
General Literature Studies
Year
2020