Social Intelligence

Folksonomies and tagging are relatively new concepts for me, but concepts with potential to make my work and research extremely interesting in the coming years. I do a good bit of exploring on the internet whether I am doing my own research for school, looking for information for someone else or just browsing the internet. I think that  bookmarking websites and sharing them with others could become a hobby that continues through out my life. Often  when I hear a new term or meet someone from elsewhere one of the first things I do is to Google the term or location to learn more about it to add to my knowledge base and make sure I understand it in the context of my own experience.

Tagging is the way that people are now making sense of the world around them and making sure that they remember the websites, blogs, books, music, etc.  they might want to go back to at a later date. Social bookmarking sites and tagging in library catalogs enlarge the amount of information that is being digested by these individuals. If people add their own terms to those currently existing they will be able to find these items of interest in the future and in some cases find other items of interest that someone else has tagged with the same term. They will adding to their personal library and knowledge base as well as potentially sharing new resources with others who also enjoy the topic.

Interest groups develop as result of social tagging when people realize that they share an interest in multiple websites or articles. They can then share ideas and information that the other people might not have as well as solve problems and come up with new web content or programs. People with particular interests  are motivated to keep up with the latest news and changes in these areas and so are able to provide information to others with similar interests. Interest groups can act as a panel of experts validating new knowledge, recognizing fakes and forgeries as well as providing constructive criticism and input for ongoing research.

Folksonomies and the other changes being made to library catalogs are exciting in that they have the potential for making the vast knowledge base of the internet sortable on some scale and creating greater access to traditional resources. The idea is that the terminology developed by users is added to that chosen by cataloguers resulting in a library catalog that is a portal instead of a wall to a larger majority of library users. I am sure many others have read a great book or watched a movie and then wanted to read or see something else only to discover that further works by this person are unavailable.  Having a wider selection of search terminology available would aid in making a secondary selection and as a cataloguer I have no difficulty recognizing the frailties of the traditional catalog.

 LibraryThing for Libraries and Bibliocommons provide extra information from the knowledge bases of the users and other librarians. Information on topics like series and other editions as well as the wealth of material from other countries. Social cataloguers are creating amazing resources that we as librarians can not dismiss whether we add the content directly to our catalogs and websites or whether we just let people know what is out there in the virtual realm.

After reading Edward M. Corrado and Kathryn A. Frederick’s article about subject guides and library software for subject guides, I thought about potential uses for this software for public libraries. This software could be used for a library of digital links  for a public library as well as the uses described in this article in the academic realm. I was surprised that no one seemed to mention the fact that some proprietary software has a built-in alert system for upgrading links. I wondered whether the alert system is a specialized application of cataloguing/metadata software and is not included in the subject guide software. The problem is that alerts are still a relatively new addition to cataloguing software (I was part of a discussion on this technology approximately 8 years ago).  Cataloguers are leary of adding web sources to their catalogues because the websites and their content can be transient in nature. The extra work involved in maintaining links and making sure that previously discovered sites have not been shutdown or highjacked by others is a worry. A similiar worry likely exists for subject librarians maintaining subject guides. I have been to static subject guides where a third or more of the links were dead so maintainance is important. While link libraries and subject guides are a time consuming project being able to delegate the checking of links to reliable staff or volunteers who may be manning a quiet reference or circulation desk might be a worthwhile option. Another option is to have a digital suggestion/problem box at the base of your link library so that suggestions for useful links and  a note about dead links can be sent directly to the staff member or members maintaining the site.

If social software is about collaboration and connection then a site maintained by both patrons and library personnel could be an interesting way of connecting with your library community and promoting communication. We keep hearing in books, like John Palfrey and Urs Gasser’s Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, how much more connected the digital natives ie. teenagers and twentysomethings, are to the internet they grew up with or are growing up on than the digital immigrants ie. the older set and I include myself in this group. Why not utilize all this digital knowhow to create the most user friendly and utilized web community for our libraries? This is an idea that some of the university blogs and wikis have been capitalizing on that we have check out in the last few weeks.