Folksonomies VS Controlled Vocabularies

Although most of the articles this week mention top-down and bottom-up classification schemes, the only reading that explains the difference between the two is “Folksonomies: Power to the People.” I am not impressed that the other articles assume that their readers understand these terms and employ them without any sort of definition. Had I known this prior to beginning my readings, I would have read Quintarelli’s article before the others.

This week’s readings make it quite apparent that there is a real struggle between the folksonomists (bottom-up classification scheme) and those who favor controlled vocabularies (top-down classification scheme). While reading I realized that both folksonomies and controlled vocabularies have certain shortcomings. Controlled vocabularies are “rigid, conservative and centralized” (Quintarelli). This system places items in just one category, although items may actually fit in numerous groups. Folksonomies, on the other hand, are imprecise and unstructured and this may cause difficultly locating information.

Folksonomies allow people to examine how others tag resources and this often influences the folksonimist’s tagging choices. Kroski finds this trend interesting stating that “it gives us an opportunity to observe user behaviour and tagging patterns” (Kroski). Lawley; however, sees a problem with the trend to “maximize agreement rather than depth” (Lawley). Lawley seems bothered by the fact that “increasingly, people are changing the way they label their links or photos because of how they see other people labeling them” (Lawley). I don’t totally understand her point; however, because to me this does not seem much different than using controlled vocabularies. In fact, it could be a good thing as folksonomists are using similar tags and therefore providing consistency without being forced to do so.

Blog Holiday

Hi Guys,

I am taking my first "blog holiday" this week. See you all next week!

Week 6: Case Studies

Bull Run Library- This wiki does not seem to have much of a purpose or structure. There are only two headings: “News” and “Seen on the Web” and they mainly consist of links! The “News” section seems to mostly be about library news, but this is not clearly indicated. The “Seen on the Web” heading is rather random. The creators of the wiki have posted links to all kinds of websites, from medical resources to colour palette generators (what the heck?). The Bull Run Library really needs to specify what type of information they are posting.

Butler WikiRef – I think that using a wiki to make a collaborative review of reference resources is a good idea. Once people add more information Butler WikiRef will be a very valuable source of information. As of right now, it does not seem like many people have contributed. Each resource contains only a summary of about one or two sentences. I wonder how Butler Library could promote their wiki. One thing that I noticed was that the wiki does not have a link to the university or library websites. Therefore, I am unsure of the school with which the wiki is associated. I would hope that the main library page has a link to Butler WikiRef! If not, no one would be able to find it! One other problem that I noticed was that users are told to “click in the search box (top left) and enter a keyword” to locate a resource; however, the wiki does not seem to have a search box.

Ohio University Libraries Biz Wiki – I really appreciate the organization of the Biz Wiki. The goal and contents of the wiki are clearly stated just underneath the title. In this summary there is also a link to a more thorough explanation. I feel that this is a very important feature of a wiki because people need to understand the purpose in order to contribute. Many of the categories remain blank, but with all of the assistance that the creator, Chad Boeninger, provides potential contributors (ex. “Help Page”, “About Biz Wiki” page, his Facebook link and an instant messaging option) I have no doubt that it will quickly fill with useful business information.

Princeton Public Library - Book Lovers Wiki – The first thing that I noticed about this Wiki was the colour. The red background is very appropriate for a book "lovers” site and I found it very visually appealing. I like the idea of a book review wiki, but it bothers me that most of the books only have one review. It would make sense for the Princeton Public Library to pick a book a month for the Summer Reading Club and then have members post their reviews at the end of the month; however, I do not think that this is how the club works. It seems to me that members can read anything they fancy. This means that many of the books on the wiki only have one review because members are not reading the same books. One review is not very helpful, especially when you have no idea who reviewed the book.

SJCPL Subject Guides – I think that more public libraries should use subject guide wikis. The SJCPL Subject Guide Wiki is full of helpful information. I especially like the guide on Local & Family History. Many people who use public libraries are interested in genealogy and this guide is a great starting place. I noticed that the subject guide links change colour when they are first clicked, but then turn back to their original colour. When searching the wiki I found this frustrating. There are quite a few subject guides and I kept re-clicking on the guides I had already viewed.

USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library – I was surprised to discover that this is a wiki. It looks just like a regular library website! I would have never known if it weren’t for the “Powered by PmWiki” and “Edit” links in small font in the bottom left-hand corner. I attempted to edit the wiki, only to find that it is password protected. Therefore, only those authorized can edit the contents. I wonder if the library website really needs to take the form of a wiki. I would be interested to know how often this information gets updated. Much of it, such as information on interlibrary loans and finding articles and books, seems like it would be static information.

Wyoming Authors Wiki – Wow… Who knew that there were so many books written about Wyoming and authors from Wyoming! I myself am not all that interested in Wyoming (shh—don’t tell the Wyoming Authors Wiki community!), but the wiki does seem to be chalk full of information. This is a neat project by the Wyoming Center for the Book and I would be interested in finding out how many people visit the site.

Wikipedia and Oversight

The article “Know it All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise” mentions that Wikipedia has an “oversight” function by which some admins can purge text from the system. I wonder if other wikis have a similar function. It seems to me that this goes against the main goal of a wiki: open collaboration in which everyone can see what is added, removed and edited. I guess that I can understand removing personal/private information that gets posted, but I think that there should be a note indicating that this information has been deleted on the “Recent Changes” page. I believe that Wikipedia should publicly document when they use the “oversight” function; however, they do not. As Schiff notes: “even the history page bears no record of [deleted information] ever having been there” (Schiff). I wonder if most people are even aware that this function exists. As only a select few admins (28 as of February 2007) have the authority to use the “oversight” key, the general public may have no clue. This does not seem right. Wales says that this measure if rarely used, but how do we know if this is true? Does anyone else see a problem with this “oversight” function?

Using Wikis for Group Assignments

Some of the readings this week mention using wikis for group assignments. What a great idea! As MLIS students we have many group projects and I’m sure most of you would agree that sending e-mails with various edits gets totally confusing. A wiki is the perfect solution. As Farkas’ notes, a document “can be edited in the wiki rather than having different versions of a word processing file going back and forth through e-mail” (Farkas). I really had never thought of this before, but it makes perfect sense. Initially setting up a wiki for a group assignment may cause some worry, but Brian Lamb says that “new users need to learn a few formatting tags, but only a few” (Lamb). Learning just a few formatting tags probably wouldn’t take that long. I noticed that this week’s group presentation was on a wiki (it looked great, by the way). Did you guys find the setup difficult? What kind of tags did you have to learn?

Vendor Case Studies

Engineering Village 2 and EBSCOhost allow users to set up their own customizable queries for RSS. This is an awesome feature because it allows researchers to specify exactly what they are looking for and how often they want to run the search (once a day, once a week, bi-weekly, etc.) ProQuest RSS Feeds page did not mention customizable searches. I would assume that they have a similar feature; however, I do not understand why they do not promote it. The most helpful vendor page is Engineering Village 2, which provides detailed information about their RSS feeds, along with screen shots. If I were choosing a vendor based on the information from this week’s cases, I would definitely go with Engineering Village 2.

Working in a special research library, I can see how customizable searches would be very valuable to researchers. It makes me wonder how many people who work in my building know about RSS and the customizable search feature. I think that it should be a library’s goal to promote these tools. A library could easily promote awareness through e-mail messages or library orientations.

Libraries Improve their Services with RSS

Many libraries are improving their services with RSS. One example of this is The University of Alberta library, which “provides a feed for its ‘Library and Instruction’ program page” (McKiernan). I think that this is a great idea. I took a look at this page and found that it has a lot of useful information about navigating the library (finding books and journals in the library, searching databases, requesting interlibrary loans, etc.), navigating the library for biology resources and introductory guidance for English Literature Research. I majored in English in undergrad and this introductory guide would have been extremely helpful. I also noticed a link for “Doing research from a Distance” which I thought may be useful for this class; however, the link was broken (don’t you just hate that??) I think that the library should encourage all undergraduate students to apply for this feed. All of the information on this site would be of great help to new students. In my post, “Next Generation of Library Blogs”, I talked about how more libraries should employ blogs for bibliographic instruction. Although The University of Alberta “Library and Instruction” program page is not a blog, they are using similar technology (RSS) to get bibliographic instruction to their students. This allows busy students to remain up-to-date, without having to go into the library or remember to check the program site. Good job University of Alberta Library!!

How did we ever do without RSS?

In his article "Success Story: RSS Moves Into the Mainstream at the University of Alberta Libraries", Reichardt mentions that RSS and even weblogs are not very well known by undergraduate students. Reichardt asked two engineering classes if they had ever heard of RSS and not one student raised their hand. This was very surprising to me, although I am not sure why, as I had not heard of RSS until a few months ago. In the last month I have been immersed in RSS technology through the course readings and hands-on experience. Perhaps my new-found familiarity with the concept has made me assume that since I know about RSS (and I am not particularly technologically-savvy) other people must know about it. Does this make any sense at all?? I think that Reichardt makes a good point when he states that "the groups that need targeting initially are graduate students, faculty, and engineers in industry, who have a greater need for current awareness" (Reichardt). I believe that once these groups become aware of RSS's enormous potential, they will be hooked. It seems to me that RSS is the type of technology that once you begin using it, it is hard to see how you ever did without. If graduate students, faculty and engineers are initially targeted, I doubt that it will take them very long to tell their family, friends and business associates about the great benefits of RSS. I just started using RSS and I was so impressed that I have already recommended it to a handful of my friends.