Tag It!
Social Bookmarking and Tagging
Sara Greenleaf
Hobart and William Smith Colleges

First Disclaimer
We’re going environmentally friendly this year
regarding handouts.

Second Disclaimer
I’m a cataloger, not a programmer.

Tagging
Introduces a human element to Internet

resource retrieval
Allows people to organize resources in ways

that are meaningful to them

Tagging
Keywords or phrases assigned

Natural language

Personal context and meaning

Syntax according to site or resource

User-developed innovative methods and

complex structures

Tagging
Personal Inaccurate
 
Natural language Inconsistent
 
On-demand Variants for the same
 
term or phrase
As-needed

Harry Potter

harrypotter

HarryPotter!

HP


Tag Cloud
Visual represenation of a group of tags

Usually alphabetical

Font sizes and depth of color vary by frequency of

use

Folksonomy
“…people tagging information so that they can
come back it themselves or so that others with
the same vocabulary can find it.”
--Thomas Vander Wal.

Broad Folksonomy
Many people tagging one resource

Deep description

Enhances the likelihood of retrieval


Del.icio.us
Social bookmarking site

Links saved online

Tagging

Shared with other users

Sorting and organization

Example of broad folksonomy


Narrow Folksonomy
Tagging of individual items (example:

photographs)
Many items tagged by few users

Description not as deep (shallow)


Flickr
Photo sharing site

User post photos

Tags used to describe photos

Example of narrow folksonomy


Tagging - organization
in the hands of the
public

LibraryThing
Cataloging of books (and other resources)

Easy entry

Searches Amazon.com, Library of Congress, etc.

Tagging

Social connections

Books

Tags


Tagging in Library
Catalogs

Ann Arbor District Library
Social networking features added to catalog

= SOPAC
Tagging

Script associated with patron account and drupal

http://www.aadl.org/services/devblog/downloads


Danbury Public Library
LibraryThing for Libraries

Data from Library Thing integrated using a widget

Tags display in catalog record

Additional tag browser

Includes “similar books”


Bowdoin College
LibraryThing for Libraries


Tagging Library
Resources Using
del.icio.us

Delany Library
Secondary school in Australia

Years 7 - 12

Uses del.icio.us for web resources

Includes notes on use

Bundled by subject

Includes grade level


Thunder Bay Public Library
Del.icio.us tags rolled onto Web site

Browseable alphabetically

Tag cloud


MIT Libraries
Uses del.icio.us to integrate virtual reference

site

Tagging Library
Resources
Other Methods/Uses

Penn Tags
Similar to del.icio.us

Limited to University of Pennsylvania users

Includes links to journal articles and catalog

records
Organize links into projects


Edmonton Public Library
Tag cloud created

Subject resource page titles

Infofile titles


Duke University Libraries
Promotes Connotea for online reference

management
Export to EndNote

OpenURL set-up

Duke University Libraries group


Advanced Tagging

Geotagging
Tags indicating geographical metadata

Latitude

Longitude

Altitude


Tagging Experts
James Melzer

“The Best of del.icio.us,” Nov. 2005

http://jamesmelzer.com/bearings/?p=68


Characteristics of Expert Users
Detailed descriptions

Clusters

Hierarchical strings

Ratings

Uses of certain tags:

Source information (via:person)

Subject time periods

Resource types (=resource_type)

Publication names (in:publication_name)


Questions?
Thank you!