Five Tag Searches

My 5 tag searches on Flickr were “Lee Childs,” “UFO,” “Area 51,” “Rachel, NV,” and “Groom Lake.”  Tag searches with user generated tags can be weird; Lee Childs is an author, but the name gives results for poker players and members of family groups…okay, and a picture of one of his books in black and white.

 

However, folksonomies could cure one problem that I encountered in my database group in Library 202 – how does one figure out the user’s vernacular so that she can find items in the catalog?  What if someone calls a jerusalem cricket a “potato bug?” etc. etc.  User submitted tags allow everyone to tag items in their own language.  The downside to that – if you don’t speak a particular dialect – you may not be able to retrieve an item.  Library catalogs could benefit from user tags if these tags were added to the institutionalized tags – that way, more people could access these catalogs.

 

There are amazing social networking aspects of tags that I was never aware of until I participated in the Emerging Technologies Forum.  A major one is the ability to hook up with members of groups (such as librarians, cat lovers, etc.).