Tagging for health information organisation and retrieval

This paper examines the tagging practices evident on CiteULike, a research oriented social bookmarking site for journal articles. Articles selected for this study were health information and medicine related. Tagging practices were examined using standard informetric measures for analysis of bibliographic information and analysis of term use. Additionally, tags were compared to descriptors assigned to the same article

Exploring the Structure of Library and Information Science Web Space Based on Multivariate Analysis of Social Tags

Introduction. This study examines the structure of Web space in the field of library and information science using multivariate analysis of social tags from the Website, Delicious.com. A few studies have examined mathematical modelling of tags, mainly examining tagging in terms of tri-partite graphs, pattern tracing and descriptive statistics. This study is one of the few studies to employ multivariate analysis in investigating dimensions of Web spaces based on social tagging data. Method. This study examines the post data collected from a set of library and information science related Websites bookmarked on Delicious.com using a Web crawler. Post data consist of the URL, usernames, tags and comments assigned by users of Delicious.com. The collected tag data were analysed based on multivariate methods, such as multidimensional scaling and structural equation modelling. Analysis. Collected data were first analysed using multidimensional scaling to explore initial relationships amongst the selected Websites. Then, confirmatory factor analysis based on structural equation modelling was employed to examine the hierarchical structure of the library & information science Web space. Results. Social tag data exhibit different dimensions in the Web space of the library and information science field. In addition, social tags confirmed the hierarchical structure of the field by showing significantly stronger relationships between the sites with similar characteristics. That is, the structure of the tagging data shows similar connections to those present in the real world. Conclusions. This study suggests a new statistical approach in social tagging and Web space analysis studies. Tag information can be used to explain the hierarchical structure of a certain domain. Methodologically, this study suggests that structural equation modelling can be a compelling method to explore hierarchal structures of nodes on the Web space

Controlled vocabularies and tags: An analysis of research methods

Social tagging has become increasingly common and is now often found in library catalogues or at least on library websites and blogs. Tags have been compared to controlled vocabulary indexing terms and have been suggested as replacements or enhancements for traditional indexing. This paper explored tagging and controlled vocabulary studies in the context of earlier studies examining title keywords, author keywords and user indexing and applied these results to a set of bibliographic records from PubMed which are also tagged on CiteULike. Preliminary results show that author and title keywords and tags are more similar to each other than to subject headings, though some user or author supplied terms do match subject headings exactly. Author keywords tend to be more specific than the other terms and could serve an additional distinguishing function when browsing

Genre Tag . . . Tag Genre

This paper examines genre-related tags through a social bookmarking system CiteULike. Three types of genre-related tags were identified: “is” tag indicating a genre,“for” tag for creating another genre, and “about” tag dealing with a genretopic. An analysis of the frequency and functions of genre-related tags will enable us better understand tagging as well as genre

New roles and global agents in information organization in libraries

[Resumen] En un nuevo escenario globalizado, los roles de los agentes tradicionales de la organización de la información en bibliotecas han tendido a converger con aquellos provenientes de la industria del libro, bajo la presunción de que en su mayor parte las prácticas tradicionales bibliotecarias no son válidas ante esta nueva situación. El presente trabajo analiza la naturaleza e implicaciones para las bibliotecas de los vínculos existentes entre los agentes provenientes de la industria de libro y los organismos responsables de los principales sistemas de organización de la información bibliotecarios, tanto en un ámbito internacional como en el caso concreto de España. Algunos de los agentes cuyos discursos han sido analizados incluyen OCLC, el Consorcio de la CDU, BISG, BIC, EDItEUR, DILVE, Google y Amazon, concluyéndose que existe una incursión y colaboración entre uno y otro sector que se materializará en un aumento de la universalidad y homogeneización de unas prácticas de organización de la información en bibliotecas en las que no se tienen en cuenta la naturaleza y características específicas de las diferentes comunidades y contextos.[Abstract] In a new globalized scenario, the traditional activities of information organisation agents in libraries have tended to converge with those from the book industry, under the presumption that most traditional library practices are not adequate for the new globalized situation. This article analyzes the nature and consequences for libraries of the links between agents from the book industry and the organizations in charge of the main library information organization systems, both at an international level and in Spain. Some of the agents whose discourses were analyzed include OCLC, the UDC Consortium, BISG, BIC, EDItEUR, DILVE, Google and Amazon. We conclude that there is evidence of an incursion of book industry practices into the information organisation practices of OCLC and that collaboration between both sectors will result in an increase in universality and homogenization in library information organization practices without consideration for the nature and specific characteristics of the library and how it differs from the bookstore

Complementary or Discrete Contexts in Online Indexing : A Comparison of User, Creator, and Intermediary Keywords.

This paper (forthcoming in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science) and presented at the CAIS Conference in 2006 examines the context of online indexing from the viewpoint of three different groups: users, authors, and intermediaries. User, author and intermediary keywords were collected from journal articles tagged on citeulike and analysed. Descriptive statistics and thesaural term comparison shows that there are important differences in the context of keywords from the three groups

Patterns and Inconsistencies in Collaborative Tagging Systems : An Examination of Tagging Practices

This paper analyzes the tagging patterns exhibited by users of del.icio.us, to assess how collaborative tagging supports and enhances traditional ways of classifying and indexing documents. Using frequency data and co-word analysis matrices analyzed by multi-dimensional scaling, the authors discovered that tagging practices to some extent work in ways that are continuous with conventional indexing. Small numbers of tags tend to emerge by unspoken consensus, and inconsistencies follow several predictable patterns that can easily be anticipated. However, the tags also indicated intriguing practices relating to time and task which suggest the presence of an extra dimension in classification and organization, a dimension which conventional systems are unable to facilitate