When you organized your office files or DVD collection, you probably assigned one or more keywords to them, to allow you to easily locate items when you needed them in the future. Guess what? In the online world, that systematic process is called tagging.
A tag is a keyword. Tagging is the process of assigning tags to content. It is an informal classification scheme, called a folksonomy, which allows a user to associate online content (websites, podcasts, blogs, blog posts, digital photographs, etc.) with a tag, for retrieval at a later date.
The process of sharing your tags with others is considered social bookmarking. Social bookmarking services allow you to create, share, and access your bookmarks online, from any computer connected to the Internet. This differs from the traditional bookmarks you create using your web browser. Unless you export those bookmarks to an external drive, you can only access them from the computer on which they were created.
The Library of Congress Classification system requires librarians to use a strict set of rules to categorize items by subject. With social bookmarking, you are in charge of deciding what keyword best represents the content. For instance, the LC subject heading for the APA style guide is Psychology — Authorship — Handbooks, manuals. Wouldn’t it be much easier to remember and find if you simply labeled it “style guide” or “citation sources”? Think about it.
Still confused? Check out this video from the team at Common Craft. They do an excellent job of making complicated topics easy to understand. It takes a while for this file to download. You might want to turn the volume down or off until the entire video is downloaded. Then crank the sound back up and watch the video.
Social Bookmarking Software
You will need special software, provided by a social bookmarking service, to create and share your tags. Examples of social bookmarking tools include: Delicious, Furl, and Diigo. Some social bookmarking tools are designed for individuals with specific interests. CiteULike is a scholarly bookmarking service, designed for researchers to share papers they are reading and see what papers others are referencing. Connotea, designed for scientists and clinicians, allows users to organize and share references with their peers. A list of the thirty largest social bookmarking sites is available at: http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social30.
Readings
Etches-Johnson, A. (2006, April). The Brave New World of Social Bookmarking: Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Too Afraid to Ask. Feliciter, 52(2), 56-58. Retrieved September 12, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
Lomas, C. (2005, May). 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking. Retrieved September 12, 2008, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf.
Pack, T. (2007, April). A ‘del.icio.us’ Way to Use Bookmarks. Information Today, 24(4), 36-37. Retrieved September 12, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
Stevens, M. (2007, September). Tagging & Social Bookmarking. Library Technology Reports, 43 (5), 58-61. Retrieved September 12, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
Examples
University of South Carolina Libraries: LibGuides @ USC – Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Michigan University Library: MTagger
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries: Virtual Reference Collection Beta
Danbury Public Library – Search the library catalog by keyword. Enter literacy. Click Go. Select one of the first three records. Notice the tags.
Activity #1
Select two or three keywords that describe a topic that interests you. Search for those tags on Delicious. Did you discover a site that interests you? Tell us about it on your blog.
Sign up for a free account with Delicious. You can skip the section regarding adding a shortcut to your browser toolbar. Is there a website that you think we should know about? Bookmark and tag four of your favorite websites. Make sure you also include the tag “fjtl20” in your description. Later in the week, search for the tag “fjtl20″ to discover what other participants think are the absolutely best websites. You may be surprised at what you find!
Creating tags can require some creativity. If you use multiple words to describe content, each word is considered a separate tag (banned books week). You can eliminate spaces between words, use hyphens, or underscores to make the tag more meaningful (bannedbooksweek or banned_books_week). For example, if I wanted to tag the library’s website, I could use the following: uam, taylorlibrary, fjtl20.
Activity #2
So, what is your impression about social bookmarking? Do you think you will continue to use traditional browser bookmarks or make the switch? Describe how you would incorporate this tool in your personal or professional life. Create a post to share your thoughts and ideas on your blog.
