Using Social Networking Tags in a Library Setting

Keith KisserJuly 9, 2008

Social Networking Tags

User based classification Tags don’t replace traditional

cataloging, they enhance it

Folksonomy

“The practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content.”*

How people organize data on a personal level

*From Wikipedia

Web 1.0

The Library as a point of access to the Internet

Web 2.0

The Internet as a point of access to the Library

Tags are part of the Web

Keep track of your favorite sites and content across multiple platforms

Users define their own needs and wants

3 ways Tags can be used in a library:

Del.icio.us LibraryThing Flickr

Organize websites and web content Self-generated categories Based on common subjects and categories

Bundlesorganize tags

Tags

Del.icio.us in the library

Useful for library staff Cross-platform research

Catalog your personal library Tags ranked by popularity Ratings and Reviews like

Amazon.com

Users select the way they view content

LibraryThing Record

Tags display in Item Record

LibraryThing in the OPAC

Organize, share and print your photos online

Also uses tags Allows comments for individual photos Users create albums or collections

Comments allow forusers to contribute

information

Flickr and Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing – “taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.”*

faculty, staff, students and the general public contribute additional information

*From Wikipedia

Flickr as an extension of the library catalog

Display exhibitions and special collections Expands access Add links in the OPAC

Not everyone is a cataloger —This is a good thing

Tagging is familiar Patrons contribute to the collection Customizable

Tags in the Library

Introduces the idea of the library catalog as a tool people already use, not something alien and weird that requires special powers

Works Cited Mercado, Andrea. LibraryTechtonics: Tagging on Flickr & del.icio.us.

http://www.librarytechtonics.info/archives/2005/10/tagging_on_flic.html

Fister, Barbara. Acrlog: LibraryThing for (Academic) Libraries. http://acrlog.org/2008/03/08/library-thing-for-academic-libraries/

Anon. LibraryThing for Libraries. http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/

Rethlefsen, Melissa. Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us - 9/15/2007 - Library Journal. Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6476403.html

Wenzler, John. 2007. LibraryThing and the Library Catalog: Adding Collective Intelligence to the OPAC. CARL NITIG, September 7. online.sfsu.edu/~jwenzler/research/LTFL.pdf

West, Jessamyn. librarian.net : IL05 : 24oct05.http://www.librarian.net/talks/flickr/

Thank You!