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Folksonomies
When looking at the title for this weeks topic I really did not have any clue what it would be about. So everything this week has been completely new to me, but I found it to be an interesting topic to read up on. I really like the idea of Folksonomies, where everyone can equally create a classification scheme about a topic through the use of tagging. I like that, instead of people at the topic forcing taxonomies on people, people can now decide how a topic, subject or whatnot is classified in their own terms. Where people do not have to be experts in a certain subject in order to classify it in their own terms, where they understand.
In many of the readings they discussed both the benefits to folksonomies as well as a lot of the draw backs in having this sort of classification system. I (being somewhat on the fence over this issue) can see and agree with both sides to this issue. There are many parts of folksonomies that are both positives and negatives, such as their inclusivity, can be seen as way for everyone to include their vocabulary, as well, on the other side, having different types of vocabulary means that when someone is trying to search for something there are no synonyms or controlled vocab, which helps to specify a search. There are many more ways that this occurs with folksonomies, but I think when you examine the overall, I see more benefits that draw backs. I understand the negative aspects to this tagging, but I really don't see any ways that these can really be fixed. I think these aspects of it will just have to be accepted. There is no possible way that these tags could really ever be organized into some sort of controlled, hierarchial system.
I found the case studies to be really interesting this week. I found it interesting to see what libraries are doing with this technology and how they are using it to enhance their service to patrons. I liked seeing how they were using tags in order to give patrons a way to have a say in how the materials were being organized in some way. I really like it when libraries give patrons the ability to interact with the libraries website, especially when it comes to these types of things.
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Hi Carolyn,
After doing the readings, I also found that I couldn't see how social tags could be 'fixed' into a controlled scheme. I guess there are some things that have been done to try to make more sense of all the different vocabulary like the use of suggested terms that are popular and most often used. I guess we'll see how things look in a few years with folksonomy.
Hi Carolyn,
I agree with you that tagging is enhancing service to patrons. Like you, I think it is great that tagging allows people to interact with library websites and have a say in how the material is organized. In the podcast this week, the founder of LibraryThing points out that tagging makes the library personal for people; it becomes "their" library when they have a say in labeling and organizing the material that interests them.
carolyn,
like you, I also was on the fence about folksonomies. Its hard to create a solid opinion about folksonomies when the readings continuously show us the positives and negatives, but we have to remember, just like Dewey and LCSH and other classification systems it is not perfect. It will have advantages and disadvantages too. Because most systems are like this, they should be used for specific needs of the library and we can benefit from their differences by using in conjunction.