>Do you have any idea of the coverage of non-fiction, research
materials in LT? Have you done any projects to look at overlap with a
research institution (or with WorldCat)?
No, I'd love to do an overlap test. Want to send me a list of ISBNs,
or shall I? (LT also has a fair number of LCCs, but ISBNs would be an
easier start.)
There's also the question of how MANY tags there are on an item, or a
work. We have a very powerful works concept, but a library could
supplement it with OCLC's xISBN.
>Emily: "let's just steal them from LibraryThing!"
Alas, we're not releasing the full data, at least for now, unless
you're writing a paper or something.
>It's not the case that _Pride and Prejudice_ is on the shelf
in the dining room; but _my copy_ of P&P is.
I think there's a sort of misplaced Platonism in this concept. (This
is also my problem with FRBR.) There is no "Price and Prejudice" in
the sky, only copies situated in the real world. "At mum's house" and
"Victorian" may divide alone item/work, but what about "English
class"? (The latter is very personal, but the physicality isn't
important--maybe you lost your copy and got a new one.) Ultimately,
all tags, even subject ones, are about how we see the world. That how
we see the world individually "rolls up" into some larger,
transferable meaning is only surprising if you don't realize it's how
everything else--excluding marooned sailors--also works.
Tim
On 2/23/07, HAZEL Margaret E <margaret.e.hazel_at_ci.eugene.or.us> wrote:
> I don't know, I'd be interested to know what individuals consider
> "comfort books", personally. Though I do agree that where it is in the
> house, or the fact that the main character reminds you of an ex, ought
> to be personal.
> -Margaret
>
> Margaret E. Hazel
> Eugene Public Library
> Eugene, OR
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Deborah Kaplan
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 8:24 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Book tagging: Amazon and LibraryThing
>
> On Fri, 23 Feb 2007, Tim Spalding wrote:
> > >Social tagging:
> >
> > This is a big and interesting topic. Here's $.02.
> >
> > There's a balance between selfish and altruistic, and some gradients
> > in between, like when a member of a church tags things for the benefit
>
> > of a small group. There is also, if not an incentive to tag
> > altruistically, something of a desire not to appear a fool. I see this
>
> > on LT all the time. Everyone's tags are public, so people are
> > conscious to note that that Ann Coulter book was a gift. Or, take my
> > brother (please!), who tags his small collection of semi-erotica
> > "sex!" Wink wink nudge nudge.
>
> This is actually a limitation in the current concept of social tagging,
> to me. On LibraryThing, for example, I want to tag my books in a way
> that will be useful to the larger social tagging
> pool: "fiction", perhaps, or "cyberpunk". But I also want to tag them in
> ways which will be useful to me: "gift from mum", "on the shelf in the
> dining room", "chewed on by a cat". Out of all of those, I can only see
> "gift from mum" potentially being something which adds to the social
> tagging pool ("look, everybody's copies of _How to Become a Better
> Daughter in 90 Days_ is tagged 'gift from mum' or some variant!"). But
> certainly all of those tags in the second set are what I would consider
> to be private. Nobody else's business but mine. Where books are laid out
> in my house, personal information about provenance or condition,
> statements about what they mean to me ("comfort book", for example).
>
> So because social tagging as a concept is social, it's designed as
> public. And therefore, because I desire to keep certain information
> private, I can't use it for personal cataloging.
> Since I can't make some tags private and viewable only to me, tags are
> limited in their functionality as cataloging tools. For me.
>
> -Deborah
> --
> Deborah Kaplan
> Digital Initiatives Librarian
> Brandeis University
>
Received on Sun Feb 25 2007 - 08:25:52 EST