Week Seven - Tagging etc.

There is great potential for tagging as a catalogue enhancement and as a cataloguer I'm aware of some of the issues involved. The Library Journal, Sept. 2007, has a good article: Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us : Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation which covers Del.icio.us as well as LibraryThing. The article has links to several libraries using Del.icio.us, giving a wider perspective on how this is being used. The first library mentioned in the article is actually an Australian library - Delany College, Granville, Australia.

One concern I have with tagging is the longer or larger the 'tag cloud' the more confusing it appears. The Sutherland Shire Libraries have an extensive number of tags and they have made use of bundling to group tags together. There is probably a stage when the volume of tags becomes too unwieldy but that is the nature of how new technologies develop and we problem-solve as they evolve.

Cleveland Public Library Recommended Bookmarks provide a neater arrangement with their lists that are then linked to Del.icio.us. Even if Del.icio.us is only used as a forum for accessible bookmarks, it can be a valuable tool for communicating with library users, as well as exposing the potential of these types of sites.

My Del.icio.us. account has no items at the moment, but I have set it up!

I hadn't realised that Technorati also searches videos about 'bookmobile' or whatever, not just blogs.

I set up my own Library Thing account and it's interesting to see you can add books using Amazon, Library of Congress or other sources. As a cataloguer I would use LC most of the time and go to Amazon if desperate. LC records are much more consistent with more info. since they have been catalogued by 'real' cataloguers. The 'Librarians who LibraryThing' group has some great questions and discussions: choosing books for incarcerated youth -- neoliberal publishers -- setting up a library in Ethiopia -- Air Force libraries : what an eclectic bunch.

Although LibraryThing has more than 21 million books to date and already half the size of Libraries Australia, I suspect the quality of the records would not match that of Libraries Australia.