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MOM! Tommy is Cataloging Again!

MOM! Tommy is Cataloging Again!. LibraryThing and the Online Participatory Catalog Matt Upson Emporia State University. Has Web 2.0 caused a Cataloging CRISIS?. Users now demand information that is: INSTANT ACCURATE PERSONALIZED

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MOM! Tommy is Cataloging Again!

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  1. MOM! Tommy is Cataloging Again! LibraryThing and the Online Participatory Catalog Matt Upson Emporia State University

  2. Has Web 2.0 caused a Cataloging CRISIS? • Users now demand information that is: • INSTANT • ACCURATE • PERSONALIZED Individual patrons have the ability to “arrange, classify, find, order, deconstruct, and reconstruct information and knowledge in any fashion he or she wishes” (Eden, 2008, p. 38)

  3. The FUTURE Catalog In order to remain relevant and usable, Karen Coyle (2007) argues that cataloging must adapt to user independence by implementing the following capabilities: • Include bibliographic records, reviews, cover art, and user commentary • Offer more results for less work • Recommend other works to users • Be interactive • Act as a participatory community • Incorporate heterogeneous data from multiple sources Adapted from Coyle, 2007, p. 416.

  4. LibraryThing (LT): “The love child of Melvyl Dewey and Web 2.0”(Bates, 2006, p. 64) • LibraryThing is a social networking site that allows users to catalog their own libraries online. • Books can be added by searching Amazon.com, the Library of Congress, and over 200 other libraries worldwide. • Valued tools that LT offers: “The attractions of the site for an end user are the one-click ease of entering a bibliographic record, the tagging capability that permits users to retrieve subsets of their collections using personally selected terms, and the robust and highly flexible interface for catalog display” (O’Neill, 2007, p. 23) IN OTHER WORDS, USER-FOCUSED CATALOGING

  5. Tagging • Users can utilize traditional subject words and “folksonomies” to categorize works in their own way by attaching “tags” to specific books. • The Lord of the Rings could be tagged with “fantasy”, “Frodo”, “Middle-Earth”, “rings”, “hairy feet”, etcetera. • By adding tags, users add to a collective body of searchable tags. • THIS MEANS THAT USERS CAN GREATLY INCREASE THEIR SEARCHING CAPABILITIES!

  6. The Power of More • Critics claim that folksonomies do not provide the consistent and reliable structure that controlled vocabularies do. • Proponents of LT offer two key rebuttals: 1. Tagging “supplements traditional classification and retrieval in an OPAC; it doesn’t supersede it” (O’Neill, 2007, p. 23). 2. The large number of LT users provides a “critical mass” (Wenzler, 2007, ¶ 3) of legitimate tags that subdue the low quality tags.

  7. Implementation • Danbury Public Library (DPL) in Danbury, Connecticut has integrated LT into its OPAC. • LT supplements the catalog by providing access to the collective intelligence of the catalog. • According to the Coordinator of Library Services at DPL, LT has “created an entirely new way to navigate our catalog. In the first week, the [LT] developers made speed and usability improvements” (Sheehan, 2007, p. 3)

  8. The Future • LT exhibits Coyle’s (2007) characteristics of the future catalog. • Users can now easily search multiple resources for materials based on their own unique preferences. • Users can add and receive personalized information and advice from LT. • Participation and collaboration have enhanced the capabilities of normal searching and cataloging behavior.

  9. References • Coyle, K. (2007). The Library Catalog: Some Possible Futures. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33 (3), 414-416. • Eden, B. L. (2008, March). Ending the Status Quo. American Libraries, 39 (3), 38. • O'Neill, J. (2007, September). LibraryThing: Cataloging for the (Social) Masses. Information Today, 24(8), 23-23. • Sheehan, K. (2007, June). LIBRARYTHING FOR LIBRARIES. Library Journal, 132, 3. • Wenzler, J. (2007, September 7). LibraryThing and the Library Catalog: Adding Collective Intelligence to the OPAC. Paper presented at A Workshop on Next Generation Libraries CARL NITIG. Retrieved March 1, 2008, from http://online.sfsu.edu/~jwenzler/research/ LTFL.pdf

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