Subject Indexing in archival documents: analysis of international definitions base on liteerature systematic Review

Abstract

Subject indexing is a fundamental process for retrieving and accessing information, but the subject lacks theoretical and methodological deepening in the context of Archival Science, which often emphasizes the classification and description processes. Given this gap, this study emphasizes the terminological and conceptual aspects of subject indexing in archival documents. It identifies the definitions presented in the national and international scientific literature and verifies the understanding of subject and content within this process, making it possible to indicate its constituent elements. The research, exploratory-descriptive and qualitative in nature, uses the systematic literature review. The survey was conducted in different databases and scientific sources, in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. After applying quality criteria, 49 texts were selected, of which the most representative on the theme were considered for discussion. It presents the types of access by subject in the archives and the main definitions and understandings of the international authors. It concludes that it is not possible to state that there is an indexing that is considered specific for archival documents, but to index the specificities of the documents and the process must be considered in any context.