Week 8: Folksonomies

It was very interesting this week reading further into the pros and cons of tagging and folksonomies. As in last week's post, I remain intrigued by the way folksonomies can be a great complement to controlled classification methods, balancing out each other's weaknesses with their own unique strengths. In refuting the disadvantages of folksonomies in The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging, Kroski in many cases transforms the weaknesses of folksonomies into strengths. She seems to be saying that, while user-based tagging is not as effective at certain things, such as recall, precision, and synonym control, this can actually be positive because it allows the system to move beyond the limitations of controlled cataloguing and fill unique user needs. It would, of course, have been interesting to allow the other side to refute the advantages of folksonomies...

There's no question that inefficiencies and abuses can occur with folksonomies, but problems also exist with traditional classification methods and tagging is still quite new and can grow into the future. The fact remains that many people make use of user-based tagging; this is something they are willing to adopt, it benefits them directly, and it is growing in popularity, so arguing against tagging and folksonomies may not be the best use of resources. Librarians can take advantage of this interest and guide the use and development of information tagging, helping to blend the disparate classification systems together into a more effective service for patrons. Observing tagging in action, especially the added features from OPAC implementations, such as LibraryThing for Libraries and the Ann Arbour District Library, makes me excited to see something like this at my library. Tagging offers librarians a glimpse into patrons' interests and how they are thinking about their information. Through the "long tails" of folksonomies as discussed by Kroski, tagging can indicate not only the popular, but the many and diverse interests that exist and provide increased understanding of the interests of the community.