Thing 13 - Tagging

I believe in a both/and approach to subject headings and tags. It only makes sense, as that approach provides the best of both worlds.

The strengths of tags addresses the weakness of subject headings, and vice versa. By using both you allow customers to explore and access information in whatever manner best suits their information need--and search approach.

Our library is in the process of acquiring Library Thing for Libraries. We chose it over ChiliFresh, in large part, for the tag clouds. At this point, we will not have any control over the tags--they come only from personal LibraryThing user accounts. But, one supposes that LibraryThing users are avid readers, thus specialists in their areas of interest--so that seems to work out alright. They probably know more about their favorite authors, series, and titles than I (the "cataloger") do. Taking advantage of that expertise makes sense.

I've discussed with one colleague another use for tags--using them instead of local subject headings. (Assuming, of course, that we can eventually add tags to our titles.) For example, adding "bedtime stories" as a tag to excellent picture books for getting little ones to sleep. Tagging would allow all the youth services librarians to easily add tags to titles as they come to mind; whereas locally added subject headings require the intervention of a cataloging librarian.

Those frequently-requested topics could be tagged on the fly--possibly creating a future in which "bookmark" lists of titles on a subject or in a genre are entirely replaced with constantly updated tags, easily searched in the catalog.

Of course, the challenge would be maintaining some form of controlled vocabulary. Are they "bedtime stories," "goodnight books," "sleepytime stories," or something else altogether?

But, maybe that's less of a problem than the fact that there isn't even a subject heading that addresses the concept. Tags allow us to talk about materials in terms of how our customers want to use them, instead of merely "describing" the content. (And the question of how well, or even whether, they do that is another post altogether.)

EAC

Thing 12 - Twitter

Thank goodness! Finally, a Thing I have time to do, as I already have a Twitter account.

Those of us in the Super Users group (dedicated to technology issues--and trying to adopt (adapt?) early in often) at work all set them up a few months ago. I've also read a few articles on using Twitter to promote the library.

I'm still not convinced. Well, I'm convinced it's not for me. This sums up my position perfectly:

http://graphjam.com/2009/05/03/song-chart-memes-things-twittered/

I could probably be convinced that it might work for broadcasting short info. bites to the younger generation. After all, these youngsters stand around in groups and text, rather than talk, to each other. (It makes me feel older than my 30-something years to complain about it, though, so I'll leave it at that.)

However, you have to have "followers" before you can reach anyone. This tends to be the part the articles gloss over--creating a following to begin with.

Of course, for it to work you'd have to have (a) one really dedicated staff member to tweet every day or (2) a group of staff members dedicated to "tweeting" everyday.

I really wonder about the cost-benefit of the latter, frankly. But I also know about the amazing lack of communication between departments, so while I could see one dedicated staff member covering the information from her or his department well, I don't see one person covering all aspects of library life. Unless you have a Chief Communications Officer. (In a perfect world...sigh.)

Maybe since I don't feel the need to go explore Twitter much, I'll go read some of the other blogs here and see if anyone has a more positive (and convincing) response.

Thing 5 - Image Generators

I created this image on the "Comic Strip Generator" page. The library of images to choose from seemed fairly limited, but it was free.















This seems like an easy Thing, so here's another:















I also played with the "Captioner" on Big Huge Labs, but couldn't find a way to make the caption smaller than the default size. Since it was larger than my photo, it didn't work out too well.


On the one hand, it's amazing how much is available out there. For free! On the other hand, I can just see myself suddenly having a great idea, but then not being able to track down exactly what I want. (This happens to me a lot. I have a picture in my head, but don't have the artistic skills to render it myself, and can't find where anyone else has converted a similar version into some sort of reality.)


The other thought that this little adventure brought to mind is the question of categorization. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not. Seems like it depends entirely on how much you think like the person who created the categories. And somehow crafty things (and what are mashups and generated images but the digital version of crafts) bring out the worst of this.


An index, my queendom for an index!

Thing 4 - Mashups

Spell with Flickr:




There. I finally did it. I don't know what I did differently this time as compared the others.

But it worked.

That's my single greatest frustration with online technology. No really good instructions.

I am a step-by-step (preferably assuming I'm an idiot) directions person. Explain to me what I have to do. I'll figure out the whys and wherefors after I'm comfortable with the how.

That's also my single biggest frustration with our ILS provider. But maybe the detective skills I've developed over the past several weeks trying to work that out is standing me in good stead online, too.

Personal information: I like jigsaw puzzles.

Thing 3 - Flickr

So far I have not remembered to bring a camera to work, so I haven't taken up Option 2 yet. Maybe I'll have the time (and memory) to do that one of these days.

I have enjoyed playing around with Flickr and trying to find photos on topics that interest me.

Wildflowers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandaramic/2593222639/
Jim Henson's Muppets: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60585948@N00/113081254/
Libraries: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/sets/72157603863752660/

While the tags are useful for searching, I find the frequent lack of comments frustrating. Librarian = information junkie, I guess.

Particularly with photos about library events, it seems like some commentary would greatly enhance the usefulness and enjoyability of the photos--especially in terms of using the photos as outreach to draw new people to programs.