dissertation | 2023

University of Washington | Information School

Disambiguating Ambiguity

or,

Looking beyond uncertainty as a source of ambiguity in description systems

Representation both signals presence and advocates for resources; how we approach this work is informed by the context in which it takes place. In cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), items are represented through catalog records, which are shaped by a variety of infrastructures from standards to software. These structured descriptions, which inventory and facilitate access to items while marking their role as members of a collection, must signal the unique identity of each item, disambiguating each from similar others. In knowledge organization, and classification theory particularly, disambiguation is treated primarily as a process of moving from uncertainty to certainty. By mapping the terrain in which these surrogates are made and inviting practitioners in the field to share challenges encountered in their work, this dissertation asks what it means for something to be ambiguous in structured description.

Examples of friction and ambiguity from the field extend beyond experiences of temporary uncertainty. Working through technical and ethical issues, often with inadequate resources to attend to challenging cases, practitioners explore a variety of interventions for addressing the limitations of description systems. This dissertation contributes a framework for investigating the frictions of representation in CHIs and beyond. Doing so may help us to imagine alternative approaches to this work and to advocate for a variety of resources that can support items, collections, institutions, and the practitioners on whose labor this work relies.