@article{Cheti_2022, title={Rule following: Rules and practice in subject indexing}, volume={13}, url={https://jlis.it/index.php/jlis/article/view/488}, DOI={10.36253/jlis.it-488}, abstractNote={<p>The importance attached to subject indexing in library services, librarian awareness of its social role and practical purposes,<br />attention to indexing practices and the use of catalogs: How are these elements reflected in the system of rules governing<br />subject indexing in Italy? What does “rule following”, to use Wittengenstein’s well-known expression, mean in our field?<br />Why and how do we follow a rule? In which sense is following a rule a practice? How and in which conditions does the<br />rule relate to the practice and vice versa? Beginning with these questions, the main features of the Italian subject indexing<br />rules are illustrated: explicit rules, based on linguistic criteria, contain justifications for why a given rule should be followed<br />and should be sensitive to the use-context. All three of these features imply a relationship with practice; at the same time,<br />the rules presuppose a social practice in which they are employed and express their pragmatic meaning. Thus, the indexing<br />rules are manifested in the language of indexing through the means by which this language is used; that is, in the indexing<br />activity and in the use of catalogs. Hence, the call for libraries to attend to the pragmatic dimension of subject indexing.</p>}, number={3}, journal={JLIS.it }, author={Cheti, Alberto}, year={2022}, month={Sep.}, pages={115–124} }