The Job of Organizing

Now no longer only the domain of professionally trained catalogers and indexers, organizing books and materials has become more of a public domain with Web 2.0. While one might assume this is a threat to the job security of librarians, it actually broadens the options available to the patron and gives the librarian more of an opportunity to be a guide in the search for information. The subject headings offered by publishers and included in the catalog can be limiting. With input from the actual users of the information, items can be tagged more specifically for patrons. As a librarian, it is not likely that I will be reading EVERYTHING that comes in to my library. I will need to rely on the publisher’s suggestions for cataloging purposes. Involving the patrons that have chosen to partake in a particular resource allows for expansion of the possible audience for the item. The more specific a tag, the more likely a patron is to use the item.

While most of the aspects of public involvement in organizing materials are positive, there are some negative aspects as well. In the “hands of everyday folk”, this organization can get out of control and random. As a patron who has read a book or used a resource, I could have focused on an idea that received only 1 sentence worth of space in the material. If I then tag this resource for the minutia I am skewing the true value of the resource for other patrons. You may also have users that tag or organize based only on titles and not on actual use and value of a resource. This can be very confusing in a search for valuable content.

When tagging resources with Delicious, the tags are far from traditional subject headings. The tags I used, some of which were suggested and others were not, are quite a bit more specific. Traditional subject headings are very broad. A random site that I bookmarked at the suggestion of a friend was only tagged with the suggested tag: health. The site focuses on preparing to run a 5k. I could have given this site so many other tags: 5k, running training, fitness, big butt, etc. Being able to tag sites myself is way more helpful that being bound to a basic traditional tag. I will remember my own tags and their meanings more than a broad traditional tag.