Subject Access Principles in the New World: Procrustean or Procreative?

Abstract

The “old world” of subject access emphasized compliance with standards for content and structure directed at achieving consistency. Increasingly, as epistemic perspectives have moved away from positivist to post-positivist, and constructivist worldviews, the rationale for Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) designed from the top down has come under scrutiny. In such a shifting landscape, what can we do when we find ourselves in want of principles? Building on the conference focus of using connections between traditional and newer methods to take advantage of new opportunities, this conceptual paper re-examines theoretical underpinnings of subject access and, using design thinking approaches, looks at current applications in order to determine what is usable, what could be respectfully borrowed and adapted, and what needs to be considered and/or developed de novo?