Discovery Exercise #17-- Tagging and Folksonomies

Years ago there was a cataloging librarian in Hennepin County named Sanford Berman. He was known for creating new or different subject headings he thought common folk (not librarians)would be more likely to use or search under. He was eventually forced to retire from his job because the administrators at HCL wanted him to conform more to Library of Congress subject headings and he refused. After viewing this lesson on tagging and folksonomies, I have come to believe Sanford Berman was a man ahead of his own time.

I can't count the number of times I have tried to search for a cookbook only to be reminded that the LC search term is "cookery" not "cooking" or "cookbooks". I have searched (usually in vain) for "cozy mysteries" or "gentle fiction", eventually resorting to Yahoo! or Google for suggestions because I couldn't find anything fitting the patron's criteria in the library catalog. (When was the last time you searched a library catalog for an adult mystry or fiction book that had no graphic sex or graphic violence?)

But, I can also see the downside to tagging and folksonomies, too. If everyone catalogs books according their own criteria or descriptions, how will we know where to find books or what is reliable? Would a book on low cholesterol diets (with recipes) be found in cooking or in health? Would a cozy mystery have no violence? a little violence? a medium amout of violence? Do we need separate shelving classifications (or shelf spaces) for the amount of death or violence in each mystery?

This is an intriguing dilemma--one that makes me glad I am not a cataloger!

Incidentally, I added "cooking" "cookery" cookbooks" "diets" and "recipes" in the labels section of this post even though none of those items are contained in this post. Which means if anyone is searching this blog for those items, they maybe disappointed. But that just illustrates an earlier point I made: if we conduct searches using tagging or folksonomies, how will we know what is reliable?

Exercise #16- Del.icio.us

When I first looked at Del.icio.us, I thought "OK, I understand the concept and I suppose it could be useful, especially if you have a gazillion websites that you visit. But, personally I don't see the need for it. There are 12 items in the Favorites link on my home computer and five of those are libraries. Why would I want to put those Favorites in Del.icio.us and tag them? Isn't that just creating more work and duplicating another funtion on my computer?" But then, I created a Del.icio.us account and added a few websites. Now I have much better understanding of how Del.icio.us works and a better understandng of its potential.

If I listed all my favorite websites in Favorites on my home computer, I couldn't access the list if I was at work. (I don't own a laptop or a cell phone and I am not planning to lug my pre-Millenium desktop computer to work with me, so most of those favorite websites would be useless if I ever needed them away from home.) But, with Del.icio.us, I could access those websites almost anywhere that I have access to a computer and I could search for them by topic instead of by looking for them in folders or scrolling down an unorganized list. (How very non-librarian-like of me to have an unorganized list!) In any case, here is the link to my Del.icio.us entries, should you want to check them out:

http://del.icio.us/libraryslayer

Exercise #15--Rollyo!

When I first looked at Rollyo, I though what am I supposed to do with this? I don't need a customized search engine. I have Google and Yahoo! But, then the light bulb went on! Eureka! I could create a Reader's Advisory search engine with my favorite RA sites and with sites suggested by my MORE class instructor. Here is the link:

http://rollyo.com/library_slayer/readers_advisory/

Discovery exercise #14 Library Thing

Library Thing is not new to me. I had read and heard about it before trying SPPL 2.0. But, I never set up an account or added any books to Library Thing. (It was one of those things I'll get a round to someday.)
Well, today is the day. Here is the link to five books I added. When I have time (ha-ha), I'll add the rest of my personal library.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/librarian2005

Discovery Exercise #13

As a creature of habit, I went back to fd's trading cards website to play around with an online image generator. These online image generators are way cool! I created a calendar and a magazine cover (again using images upload from photo discs). (Flickr is way cool, too!) Both activities were fun, but sometimes frustraing and time-consuming. The magazine cover (below) is not as good as I would like because the text on the middle left and the text on the the lower right blends into the photo. I tried white text, black text and different colored text. The text that looked best was black. When making the calendar, some of the photo images would also get cut off (or people would have text scrawling across their forehead.) I had to keep editing the pages and repositioning the photos so the calendar would like nice.

But, when everything was done, the magazine cover and the calendar came out so well, that I'm printing them out and giving them away as Christmas gifts. (My not-so-techy family will be really impressed and think I spent hours working on these things!)

Discovery Exercise #11 RSS Feeds

When I first heard about RSS Feeds I decided I didn't like them and would never use them. They look so complicated. (Although I suspect that I may have been because I was viewing one in html.) But, after learning more about RSS feeds, I've decided they are not so bad. I even managed to set up a Bloglines account and add some good library related feeds. It took a bit of an effort to figure out. But, like anything new, once you practice a few times, it becomes easier.

I am hoping the feeds I added will help me to better monitor the library blogs I read. Previously, the blogs were all listed in a Word document and whenever I had the time, I would open the Word document, click on the link and read the blog or blogs on the Internet. Sometimes, I read new entries and sometimes, I reread old entries (not realizing they were old entries until after I had read them!).

How could SPPL take better advantage of RSS feeds? Take a look at Arbor District Library and Hennepin County Libraries for some ideas. Here are their links: http://www.aadl.org/ and
http://www.hclib.org/. And while you are at it, check out this blog posting I stumbled across: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-librarian-bloggers-by-the-numbers . It lists the Top 25 Librarian bloggers. Is your blog on the list?

#10 Audiobooks

Downloading audiobooks is ok-- if you don't mind the limited selection of titles or the horribly long download times. The one--and only--self help book I looked at in the Netlibrary had a download time of 3 hours and 57 minutes. (A colleague said, "I could probably read the book in that amount of time!")

I chose a much shorter book to practice with: The Cat in the Hat. It downloaded quite well to my computer, but I couldn't get the e-audiobook to transfer to the flash drive or the MP3 player. Tried another short book. Had the same problem.

It is much easier for me to use Books on Cd. I can take the discs wherever I need them and play them in a cd player. If necessary, I can also download them to my pre-Millenium computer via Music Match Jukebox or Windows Media Player. It is cumbersome (and probably a copyright violation), but it takes a lot less time than downloading from NetLibrary!