Notes from One Big Library Unconference. With Comments. Part Two.

Cataloguing/Semantic Web/Folsonomies [sic] etc.

openlibrary.org
-like a wiki-version of OCLC?
-will have more records than OCLC in 18-24 months
→who owns the metadata?

OCLC has more restrictions?

social tagging
vs.
controlled vocabulary

Controlled vocabs can be inadequate
Tagging can be helpful statistically
(e.g. in large numbers)

Why do we want to professionalize social tagging? Doesn't that miss the point?

cold rigid authorities
vs.
wild wooly tagging

→Does this constitute a threat or an opportunity for cataloguers?

COMMENTS
By far my favourite session. I've been interested in the idea of the semantic web ever since it was introduced to me. Admittedly that was just a few months ago, but still, the idea of so many interlocking parts, and of such a grand communal effort, is so satisfying. In my thinking, the One Big Library would be a part of the greater semantic web, and I would have liked some talk about where the borders would be drawn. I disliked some of the talk about social tagging. One of the session moderators was talking about what he saw as the importance of teaching people to tag so that others could find what they had tagged. I don't think librarians need to try to control and formalize tagging, which I see as wild and untamable. I would almost guarantee that if people are taught how to tag, they'll either stop using tags or tags will stop being effective for them. Tags do not belong to just us; they belong to everyone and we should leave them alone. (I mean, we should still use them ourselves, but you get my drift.) There is no need to confuse them with controlled vocabularies; social tagging is something new and different. Moderator and organizer Stacy was talking about it almost as though it was a resource for cataloguers to mine; I like this. The Zotero guy, Trevor Owens, mentioned that it would be useful to have the two "pools" -- traditional vocabularies and social tags -- to draw on, to improve library catalogues. I like this too. There was much talk about allowing users to tag records in OPACs, which I think is a fabulous idea.



One Big Library on One Little Device.

Mobile interfaces
-for OPACs, dbs, etc.?

Isolation of iPod
vs.
Connectivity of iTouch?

Issues of privacy + access

Texting call numbers!

Who uses what devices?
→user profiles
→what are they trying to do?

Splashtop.

COMMENTS
Apparently the Ryerson library catalogue has a feature whereby, after finding the book you want, you can text the call number to yourself. I think this is nothing short of brilliant; in all seriousness, I would use this all the time. This session made me realize that the reason I'm not more "up" on certain social technologies is that I want to leave the house sometimes, and all I have is a desktop. Who knows, if I were more mobile I might even Tweet. I like dichotomies and so am quite proud of the iPod/iTouch one I have up there.




Look into: aggregators w RSS

COMMENTS
I heard an unconferencegoer talk about how she was so behind on her aggregators. What is this? I asked myself. I got home and looked it up on Wikipedia and found that My Yahoo is one. I started using that three years ago.

Ha.