User Behavior in Tagging in the OPAC : The Example of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Library in Zagreb

Paradigmatic change has occurred in understanding the relationship of Internet users towards the content available on the Web. Unlike the earlier role of users as passive consumers, the new network, Web 2.0 is based on the user-friendly technologies which are focused on collaborative and interactive information services, social bookmarking services, where users can categorize and store their own web links, images, bibliographic records or PDF files. These technologies allow users to independently organize information in the ways which suit them best. Unlike the traditional organizing, where information specialists or authors describe, organize and classify contents, the users of social bookmarking services create metadata themselves using uncontrolled keywords - tags. Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb also allows its users to tag bibliographic records of library materials. In June 2010 the option of adding and browsing tags in the Koha catalogue was plugged in, and the users were informed about this new library service. The aim of this study is to explore how the Library users tag bibliographic records, i.e. what keywords are used to organize the information in the catalogue. The research problems were the following: which users are the most common taggers, which type of metadata is marked by tags and how do theme tags correspond to the key words in the catalogue

El OPAC Social y la participación de los usuarios en los catálogos bibliográficos

Aquest article fa una revisió de l’OPAC i els canvis que l’estan afectant actualment com a conseqüència de l’evolució que ha tingut la pròpia Web, amb un especial èmfasi en la participació de l’usuari. Començant per una revisió de què és l’OPAC, s’analitzen els canvis actuals i la bibliografia més destacada al respecte. S’avalua la possibilitat de permetre la participació de l’usuari, les formes d’aquesta participació i les tecnologies que la fan  possible. Es fa un repàs dels principals programaris que permeten construir un OPAC Social. Després de descriure també les limitacions a aquesta participació, es descriuen els principals projectes desenvolupats a l’Estat espanyol en diferents tipus de biblioteques.This article provides a review of OPACs and the changes that affect them as a result of the developments of the WWW, with special emphasis on user participation. Starting with a revision of what is an OPAC, it then discusses the current changes and the most significant professional literature highlight on  the subject. Included in the discussion are possibility of user involvement, the different types of participation and the technologies that make it possible. An overview is offered of the main software available for creating a Social OPAC. After describing the limitations of user involvement, the main projects developed in Spain —by different kinds of libraries—are outlined.la evolución que ha tenido la propia Web, con un especial énfasis en la participación del usuario. Empezando por una revisión de qué es el OPAC, se analizan los cambios actuales y la bibliografía más destacada al respecto. Se evalúa la posibilidad de permitir la participación del usuario, las formas de esta participación y las tecnologías que la hacen posible. Se hace un repaso de los principales programas que permiten construir un OPAC Social. Después de describir también las limitaciones de esta participación, se describen los principales proyectos desarrollados en el Estado español en diferentes tipos de bibliotecas

"Reading Rants!": Exploring the Design and Implementation of a Social Cataloging Tool for Teens

In this paper we explore the possibility of creating and implementing an interactive library OPAC interface, called Reading Rants!, that would be designed for and used exclusively by teens. An interactive interface such as Reading Rants! would allow teenagers to interact with their library catalog by contributing content to bibliographic records. Content creation is an integral aspect of the Web 2.0 experience; it transforms the user\u27s experience with the catalog into a dynamic conversation. By providing this highly valued service for teenagers, public libraries would elevate their worth to future library supporters and become more essential to and embedded in the community

Consumidores de información y descripción de documentos: las etiquetas de los usuarios en los catálogos de bibliotecas

P. 117-128Se describe el uso de las etiquetas en los catálogos de biblioteca

"Readers who borrowed this also borrowed...": Recommender Systems in UK libraries

Purpose – Moves towards more interactive services on the web have led libraries to add an increasing range of functionality to their OPACS. Given the prevalence of recommender systems on the wider web, especially in e-commerce environments, this paper aims to review current research in this area that is of particular relevance to the library community. It attempts to gauge the uptake of recommender systems in exiting OPAC services, and identify issues that might be responsible for inhibiting wider uptake. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on an extensive literature review, as well as original research comparing the functionality of 211 public and 118 university library OPACs in the UK. Examining current recommender systems research, it outlines the most significant recommendation models and reviews research in two key areas of recommender systems design: data acquisition, and the explanation of recommendations. It discusses three existing library recommendation systems: BibTip, LibraryThing for Libraries and the in-house system at the University of Huddersfield. Findings – The authors' analysis indicates that the incorporation of recommender systems into library services is extremely low, with only 2 per cent of public libraries and 11 per cent of university libraries in the UK offering the feature. While system limitations and budget constraints are perhaps partly to blame, it is suggested that library professionals have perhaps yet to be persuaded that the value of recommendations to library users is great enough to warrant their inclusion becoming a priority. Originality/value – This paper represents the first study of UK library OPACs to focus on the prevalence of recommender systems

An investigation into the viability of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries

Structured abstract: Purpose: LibraryThing is a Web 2.0 tool allowing users to catalogue books using data drawn from sources such as Amazon and the Library of Congress and has facilities such as tagging and interest groups. This study evaluates whether LibraryThing is a valuable tool for libraries to use for promotional and user engagement purposes. Methodology: This study used a sequential mixed methods 3 phase design: (1) the identification of LibraryThing features for user engagement or promotional purposes, (2) exploratory semi-structured interviews (3) a questionnaire. Findings: Several uses of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes were identified. The most popular reason libraries used LibraryThing was to promote the library or library stock, with most respondents using it specifically to highlight collections of books. Monitoring of patron usage was low and many respondents had not received any feedback. LibraryThing was commonly reported as being easy to use, remotely accessible, and having low cost, whilst its main drawbacks were the 200 book limit for free accounts, and it being a third-party site. The majority of respondents felt LibraryThing was a useful tool for libraries. Practical implications: LibraryThing has most value as a promotional tool for libraries. Libraries should actively monitor patron usage of their LibraryThing account or request user feedback to ensure that LibraryThing provides a truly valuable service for their library. Orginality : There is little research on the value of LibraryThing for libraries, or librarians perceptions of LibraryThing as a Web 2.0 tool

Content Analysis of Social Tags on Intersectionality for Works on Asian Women: An Exploratory Study of LibraryThing

This study explores how the social tags are employed by users of LibraryThing, a popular web 2.0 social networking site for cataloging books, to describe works on Asian women in representing themes within the context of intersectionality. Background literature in the domain of subject description of works has focused on race and gender representation within traditional controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This study explores themes related to intersectionality in order to analyze how users construct meaning in their social tags. The collection of works used to search for social tags came from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ list on East Asian, South and Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern women. A pilot study was conducted comprising of a limited sample in each of the three domains, which helped generate a framework of analysis that was used in application for the larger sample of works on Asian women. The full study analyzed 1231 social tags collected from 122 works on Asian women. Findings from this study showed that users construct a variety of intersections relating to gender and ethnicity for works on Asian women. Overall findings from this showed that gender and gender-related constructs were the most common subject of tags employed for works on Asian women. Users more often referred to geography rather than ethnicity when describing the materials on Asian women. Interesting themes to emerge involved how gender and other constructs differed among the three domains. Tags describing the majority of East Asia, such as Chinese and Japanese were most common in the East Asian dataset. Countries not considered the “majority” in South and Southeast Asia were often used, such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Themes of sexuality and religion were much more prevalent in the Middle Eastern set of tags. Social tags act as a mechanism for social commentary. Researchers have access to a plethora of constructions available to them through these social tags; such abundance of information is a valuable resource to understanding how the general populace understands intersections and constructs identity

#MPLP: a Comparison of Domain Novice and Expert User-generated Tags in a Minimally Processed Digital Archive

The high costs of creating and maintaining digital archives precluded many archives from providing users with digital content or increasing the amount of digitized materials. Studies have shown users increasingly demand immediate online access to archival materials with detailed descriptions (access points). The adoption of minimal processing to digital archives limits the access points at the folder or series level rather than the item-level description users\u27 desire. User-generated content such as tags, could supplement the minimally processed metadata, though users are reluctant to trust or use unmediated tags. This dissertation project explores the potential for controlling/mediating the supplemental metadata from user-generated tags through inclusion of only expert domain user-generated tags. The study was designed to answer three research questions with two parts each: 1(a) What are the similarities and differences between tags generated by expert and novice users in a minimally processed digital archive?, 1(b) Are there differences between expert and novice users\u27 opinions of the tagging experience and tag creation considerations?, 2(a) In what ways do tags generated by expert and/or novice users in a minimally processed collection correspond with metadata in a traditionally processed digital archive?, 2(b) Does user knowledge affect the proportion of tags matching unselected metadata in a minimally processed digital archive?, 3(a) In what ways do tags generated by expert and/or novice users in a minimally processed collection correspond with existing users\u27 search terms in a digital archive?, and 3(b) Does user knowledge affect the proportion of tags matching query terms in a minimally processed digital archive? The dissertation project was a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design focused on tag generation within a sample minimally processed digital archive. The study used a sample collection of fifteen documents and fifteen photographs. Sixty participants divided into two groups (novices and experts) based on assessed prior knowledge of the sample collection\u27s domain generated tags for fifteen documents and fifteen photographs (a minimum of one tag per object). Participants completed a pre-questionnaire identifying prior knowledge, and use of social tagging and archives. Additionally, participants provided their opinions regarding factors associated with tagging including the tagging experience and considerations while creating tags through structured and open-ended questions in a post-questionnaire. An open-coding analysis of the created tags developed a coding scheme of six major categories and six subcategories. Application of the coding scheme categorized all generated tags. Additional descriptive statistics summarized the number of tags created by each domain group (expert, novice) for all objects and divided by format (photograph, document). T-tests and Chi-square tests explored the associations (and associative strengths) between domain knowledge and the number of tags created or types of tags created for all objects and divided by format. The subsequent analysis compared the tags with the metadata from the existing collection not displayed within the sample collection participants used. Descriptive statistics summarized the proportion of tags matching unselected metadata and Chi-square tests analyzed the findings for associations with domain knowledge. Finally, the author extracted existing users\u27 query terms from one month of server-log data and compared the generated-tags and unselected metadata. Descriptive statistics summarized the proportion of tags and unselected metadata matching query terms, and Chi-square tests analyzed the findings for associations with domain knowledge. Based on the findings, the author discussed the theoretical and practical implications of including social tags within a minimally processed digital archive

LibraryThing as a library service. Assessment report

This report was requested by the Innovation and Marketing department of the ETHBibliotek, for the purpose of assessing the social cataloguing tool LibraryThing and its potential uses in an academic library

Queer Browsing and the Library of Congress Subject Headings: Can user-generated tags enhance subject access to LGBTQ+ material?

Within the field of Library and Information science, the treatment of LGBTQ+ topics in the Library of Congress subject headings is an emerging concern. Although changes have been implemented to the subject headings throughout the years, the hierarchical, oppositional nature of the system undoubtedly promotes heteronormative ideals. Moreover, the focus on uniformity and literary warrant means that ‘niché’ or non-dominant LGBTQ+ topics are often limited or obscured. The concept of adding user-tags into library catalogues has been popularised as a possible alternative. Due to this, there are an emerging number of tools that allow user-tags to be implemented as an overlay feature. This study aims to provide a comparison of Library of Congress’ subject headings and user-tags created by LibraryThing web users. To achieve this, a small pool of LGBTQ+ identifying participants were asked to complete a survey-based task to determine which terms they would use when searching for LGBTQ+ material. The participant terms were then compared with the terms that emerged within the user-tags and subject headings. Within the user-tags and participant data there was a high frequency of terms relating to “queer” identity and underrepresented LGBTQ+ groups, which were absent from the subject headings. However, the data also showed that the Library of Congress subject headings matched more of the participant given terms relating to intersectional LGBTQ+ issues. Due to their oppositional strengths and weaknesses, the research concludes that implementing user-tags to library catalogues is likely to enhance subject access to LGBTQ+ material, as long as it is implemented alongside the subject headings and does not replace them. This research is considered an exploratory study and results cannot be generalised