Library Thing For Libraries and why tagging catalog items needs a little push

I’m a big proponent for allowing tagging of books in the catalog and I’ve heard about Library Thing for Libraries for some time but, Karen Schneider over at Free Range Librarian has an interesting post on why tagging in catalogs might simply fail at best or backfire at worst unless it’s given the kind of kickstart that Library Thing for Libraries can provide.  As we prepare for vendor demos this post provides some good context.

Some highlights

(Be sure to read Karen’s full post, i’ve only scratched the surface here also–there’s a great discussion in the comments field, and Michael Casey (of Library Journal) has some interesting things to add)

For some time I’ve been pondering tagging in the context of a user’s workflow. Tagging in library catalogs hasn’t worked yet for a number of reasons, such as these rather obvious points:

• John Blyberg has noted that without critical mass, tagging is useless. I’d go farther and say without critical mass, tagging could backfire, because only the most determined cranks and pranksters might actually use it. A local library catalog is not beefy enough to build critical mass on its own; I don’t know how big or how heavily-used a catalog needs to be, but “a lot” is my guess. (Then there is the issue with the silo-like design of most library software, which keeps social data imprisoned behind proprietary walls.) That is yet another reason I like “LibraryThing for Libraries“: it’s an enrichment service to salt a catalog with an initial mass of high-quality tags built by passionate readers (and also provides that spookily-marvelous if-you-liked-this functionality).
• Some systems that claim to offer tagging make it so high-pain to tag that it works against adoption. I am thinking of the system where to merely SEE the tags a user must log in, and where tags are only searchable in “Advanced Search.” (Carl Grant, if you’re reading this, I owe you a citation on people-don’t-use-advanced-search… you have been very patient.)
• Also, on several occasions I have observed conversations about tagging between vendors and customers where the first words out of a customer’s mouth are “How can I control tagging?” and the vendor then responds in kind. If your primary objective is to “control” tagging, rather than make it work (that is, at minimum, to encourage users to provide quality tags), then the system design, to borrow youthful jargon, will be a FAIL.

PS–I saved this to our delicious feed for easy reference later on.  If you’re interested in adding things to the Sno-Isle ILS delicious feed, let me know and I’ll provide the username and password.

Jim