Deep classification: pornography, bibliographic access, and academic libraries

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services
(Formerly known as Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory)
Volume 26, Issue 2, Summer 2002, Pages 113–139

Juris Dilevko, Lisa Gottlieba

Faculty of Information Studies, 140 St. George St., University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6, Canada

Abstract

This study examines the mainstreaming of pornography in the context of current economic, popular culture, and academic trends. As pornography becomes part of popular culture, it simultaneously becomes an area of focus for academics and therefore presents particular challenges for college and university libraries. Both physically and conceptually, academic libraries must find a place for pornography on the shelves and in the array of knowledge structured by bibliographic access systems. This study looks at how the variety of issues, concepts, and genres of pornography considered in academic discourse could be accommodated within access systems by examining the way in which the adult industry itself classifies pornographic films. Specifically, the terms used by the adult industry to classify these films could be grouped within newly developed categories. The identification of the categories would not be predicated on characteristics of porn films alone. Instead, the categories would encompass specific topics, concepts, and subject areas that connect pornography to mainstream culture. Using classifications from four different adult industry sources, four sample categories are presented that could serve as a model for how pornographic concepts could be accommodated within existing bibliographic access systems.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464905502002294

Does semen have antidepressant properties?

Archives of Sexual Behavior
June 2002, Volume 31, Issue 3, pp 289-293

Gordon G. Jr. Gallup, Rebecca L. Burch, Steven M. Platek

Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York

Abstract

In a sample of sexually active college females, condom use, as an indirect measure of the presence of semen in the reproductive tract, was related to scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Not only were females who were having sex without condoms less depressed, but depressive symptoms and suicide attempts among females who used condoms were proportional to the consistency of condom use. For females who did not use condoms, depression scores went up as the amount of time since their last sexual encounter increased. These data are consistent with the possibility that semen may antagonize depressive symptoms and evidence which shows that the vagina absorbs a number of components of semen that can be detected in the bloodstream within a few hours of administration.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1015257004839