Organizing

I set up a new Delicious account this week, and I've been exploring the world of social bookmarking.  I love the idea of having my bookmarks available online.  I'm always wishing I knew the address for some cool site I visit from home but don't have a link for at work.  Having my directory of favorite online tools and content available wherever I am is fantastic.

On the other hand, it's taking me a bit longer to adjust to tagging sites instead of categorizing them in folders.  I'm pretty sure it can work out just as well, but I am accustomed to organizing my favorite sites in folders and sub-folders that create a tidy little outline of topics.

 

A new vegetable lasagna recipe would normally go in the Vegetarian sub-folder that's within the Recipes folder.  I'm sure I can just use those categories as tags and achieve a similar effect, but it will take some getting used to.

The thing that I find most intimidating about tagging is that I have to plan and create new categories each time I begin using a new program.  When I tag my photos, I have to decide whether to sort them by date, location, subject matter or the names of people featured.  When I write blog articles, I need to think of what tags readers might be looking for and then constantly edit tags as I see which are used frequently and which others might need to be combined or deleted.  With formal cataloging, these decisions are more universal and longstanding.  Because tags can change with trends and perspectives, and for that matter grammatical errors, they seem a little slippery when compared to standardized subject headings.

At the same time, a huge amount of data is being generated, through Delicious, Blogger, Flickr and any other site that allows users to tag content, about what people want to know and how the general public likes their information to be categorized.  Librarians who pay attention to frequently used tags in various programs would better understand patrons' desires and could potentially one day create a new systems that combines the best features of both the traditional and the publicly-generated systems.  So, in terms of assisting our ability to meet patrons needs, tagging is very effective.  If our goal is to control the categories and keep information easily manageable, traditional subject headings are probably more efficient.