I keep thinking about one session I attended at ALA Midwinter. It was called “Tag You’re It: A revolution in patron-library interaction” and was sponsored by the Reference and User Services Association. I keep reflecting on what an excellent tool tagging would be for juvenile readers’ advisory and reference. I’ll try to explain briefly.
As it relates to libraries, tagging allows common folk (staff, patrons, students, etc.) to attach subject headings to materials in the online catalog. These tags are supplemental to the Library of Congress headings — both would appear in the item record and both would be searchable. Since tags are user generated, they will be in a language and format that is more accessible. “Pigs” instead of “swine.” “Trains” instead of “railroad locomotives.” See where this is going? LibraryThing and Flickr are both good examples of tagging at work.
Kate Sheehan, currently with the Danbury (CT) Library, discussed how they pull tags from LibraryThing.com directly into their online catalog. It quickly became obvious how much more useful all library catalogs would be with well-integrated tags. Staff and patrons would find materials more quickly and some of those items with obscure subject headings would be more visible.
I’m not sure if this is a wave of the future or even a hot topic. It may depend on library catalog vendors or generous freeware authors to create plug-ins that allow user-generated input, but I think the idea is exciting and would increase the convenience and effectiveness of our collections.
Bradley Debrick, Guest Contributor
Teresa Walls
How incredibly useful this process could be for librarians and patrons. I know it could muddy the cataloging waters, but if we don’t lose approved and uniform categories, I say the more access points, the better. I, for one, remember all too well the limitations of the big three: subject, title and author of the actual cards of the not-so-ancient card catalog. I am still awed by how much more can be discovered by the keyword search.
I suppose the biggest concern is to keep things from becoming a place for practical jokes within the library catalog. Who within the library takes on the task to maintain/approve the tags? As much as we would like to, we can’t know the minute details of all the materials.
This could also be a great place for “big red cover.” Has anyone not had the book’s cover description as the only point of memory? I know I have had, both as the person hearing the description and as the person offering the description.
Tagging within the realm of the library catalog has exciting implications. I would love to discuss it more.
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