Presented by Lisa, Jessica, Ozan,

Tegan and Annik

What is LibraryThing? • An online site for social sharing

• Online since 2005

• Specifically design to catalogue books

• The creator built the site to catalogue his own books

• Finds links to the item on other website

• Price comparison

• Where to buy online

• Local bookstore where to find the item

Description

Type of content

Books, DVDs, CDs and

more Multiple languages English and French

mostly

User-generated with approved submission

Results come from other sources

Target audience

People who want to keep a list of the books, DVDs and/or CDs

People who would like to have recommendation based on what they like Via the website or other users

Libraries so they can shared their own collection

Description

Tagging

Non-consistent and no

control vocabulary Left to the users Limited per item Tags or more personal then

useful Users tags for themselves

rather then everybody Not very useful for the other

users

Design and user interface

Design is outdated with

to much scrolling Not mobile compatible Connects/links to

Facebook and Twitter Can use a scanner to scan

barcodes and find books Recommendations given

are accurate

Tagging

Design and user interface

Design and user interface

Purpose

To examine the “messiness” of social tagging in LibraryThing in relation to their use for search and retrieval in a library catalogue using a quantitative analysis.

Highlights of the article: “Trashy tags: problematic tags in LibraryThing”

Chose LibraryThing because it closely resembles a library catalogue.

Quantitative analysis

Used ten books, the data was collected in September and October 2008

Excluded personal tags, i.e. “to read,” “box 1”

40% of tags were excluded

Studied a total of 7,653 tags

Methodology

• The Da Vinci Code • The God Delusion • The Screwtape Letters • The Seven Habits of Highly

Effective People • Million Little Pieces

• Lonesome Dove • Heather Has Two Mommies • Sin City • I’m a Soldier, Too • Martha Stewart’s Wedding

Cakes

Findings

Titles Spelling Foreign language

Non-alphabetic characters

Dates Abbrev., acronyms, initialisms

Sentence paragraphs

Articles Tags

Da Vinci Code 182 278 782 176 360 99 27 3,049

God Delusion 56 74 178 45 103 8 6 1,174

Screwtape Letters

44 25 245 73 140 5 4 1,059

Seven Habits …

59 29 269 34 147 5 2 952

Million Little …

41 16 145 50 54 27 4 668

Lonesome Dove

13 3 122 39 80 19 9 536

Heather… 5 0 29 5 20 0 0 119

Sin City 1 2 4 1 3 0 0 52

I Am a Soldier…

0 0 4 3 3 0 0 37

Martha Stewart’s…

0 0 0 0 1 0 0 7

Totals 401 427 1,778 426 911 163 52 7,653

% of total tags 5.24 5.58 23.23 5.57 11.90 2.13 0.68

Findings

Titles Jargon Slang Nouns Plural Singular Both Variations Tags

Da Vinci Code

129 168 1,246 167 1,044 34 1,121 3,049

God Delusion

52 14 665 100 556 9 342 1,174

Screwtape Letters

42 22 505 70 423 12 402 1,059

Seven Habits …

95 13 465 73 378 15 380 952

Million Little …

27 30 307 33 269 5 206 668

Lonesome Dove

30 8 299 42 253 5 193 536

Heather… 12 7 74 39 34 1 52 119

Sin City 4 3 28 3 25 0 8 52

I Am a Soldier…

5 1 25 2 23 0 12 37

Martha Stewart’s…

0 0 5 0 5 0 2 7

Totals 396 266 3,619 529 3,010 81 2,718 7,653

% of total tags

5.17 3.48 47.29 6.91 39.33 1.06 35.52

% of nouns 14.62 83.17 2.24

Folksonomies can enhance controlled vocabularies like

LCSH

They are messy and inconsistent

Variations among tags is the biggest problem

Could be fixed by offering suggestions and recommendations, giving guidelines and allowing the editing and combining of tags

But don’t want to discourage users from creating tags

“The charm of tagging is its open and unstructured form, and this is a strength of the resultant folksonomy”

Conclusions

Background information

LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) is a series of enhancements that can be embedded into a library’s online catalogue.

Adds a tag cloud of LibraryThing tags directly to catalogue records.

Highlights of the article:

“Tags in the catalogue: Insights from a usability study

of LibraryThing For Libraries” (Pirmann, 2012)

Example of LibraryThing for Libraries Logan Library (Utah): http://library.loganutah.org/

Research question What is the utility of tags as a means of enhancing subject access and

discovery of items in library catalogues?

Methodology Major research university library 13 participants Usability test

• Open-ended searches • Known-item searches • Unknown-item searches

Screen capture software & webcam “Think aloud” technique Semistructured interviews

Methodology

Findings

Findings

Tags can be useful for finding materials in

library catalogues

However, there are several problems with the LTFL tag browser:

• Displays maximum of 30 tags

• Relevancy ranking of results

• Not seamlessly integrated in the catalogue

Conclusions

Value of Site for Subject Retrieval

Pros

Variety of Content

and

Social Creations

Variety of content Books, movies, music, board games

Many languages (including translations)

Author and publisher information

Data on collections

Similar content and recommendations

ISBN and BINC number searches

Growing collection

Quick Links; Get this Book: price comparisons

from Bookfinder.com

Social Creation User-generated, admin approved submissions

Boardgamegeek: http://boardgamegeek.com/user/jesslynch

Making and sharing lists

Connecting to users with similar interests

Forums and groups

Suggestions for site improvements

Links to Facebook and Twitter

External searches: Library of Congress Catalogue, Overcat,

Amazon.com

Value of Site for Subject Retrieval

Cons

No Search Limiters

and

Lack of Helpful Search Advice

Search Site

Tagmash

Add books

LibraryThing is a great idea that needs work

Seems outdated

Hard to navigate

Tagging strategies are lacking

It is more adapted for some context and users

Smaller libraries

Devoted users

To Summarize

Bates, J., & Rowley, J. (2011). Social reproduction and exclusion in subject indexing: A comparison of public library OPACs and

LibraryThing folksonomy. Journal of Documentation, 67(3), 431-448. doi: 10.1108/00220411111124532

DeZelar-Tiedman, C. (2011). Exploring User-Contributed Metadata's Potential to Enhance Access to Literary Works: Social Tagging in

Academic Library Catalogs. Library Resources & Technical Services, 55(4), 221-233. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from

https://login.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=llf&AN=525501497&site=ehost-

live

Lu, C., Park, J., & Hu, X. (2010). User tags versus expert-assigned subject terms: A comparison of LibraryThing tags and library of congress

subject headings. Journal of Information Science, 36(6), 763-779. doi: 10.1177/0165551510386173

O'Neill, J. (2007). LibraryThing: Cataloging for the (social) masses. Information Today, 24(8), 23. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from

https://login.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/57648651?accountid=14701

Pirmann, C. (2012). Tags in the catalogue: Insights from a usability study of LibraryThing for libraries. Library Trends, 61(1), 234-247. doi:

10.1353/lib.2012.0021

Richards, A., & Sen, B. (2013). An investigation into the viability of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries.

Library Hi Tech, 31(3), 493-519. doi: 10.1108/LHT-03-2013-0034

Starr, J. (2007). LibraryThing.com: The Holy Grail of Book Recommendation Engines. Searcher, 15(7), 25-32. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from

https://login.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=502919069&site=ehost-

live

Thomas, M., Caudle, D. M., & Schmitz, C. (2010). Trashy tags: Problematic tags in LibraryThing. New Library World, 111(5-6), 223-235. doi:

10.1108/03074801011044098

Voorbij, H. (2012). The value of LibraryThing tags for academic libraries. Online Information Review, 36(2), 196-217. doi:

10.1108/14684521211229039

Bibliography