Monday, August 10, 2009

TAG this is TAGGED!

YES...tagging is awesome! Recently our department head decided to transfer our entire reference desk manual into an online format. Each of us were assigned certain sections of the manual to move over into the new format. We previously had it all in a blog, but the newer format allowed us certain things that the blog did not. So we all cut and pasted, or typed in our assigned sections and were able to tag them. My section was different forms we have for our department. So my tags were: forms, reference, and various descriptive words indicating what type of form: fax cover, lost book, etc.

At our ref. desk we have also started a delicious account for pages we visit often. We use tags on those. I have my own personal delicious account and use tags for it, and I love the flexibility of tagging and searching the taggings of others. Searching with tags is forgiving, you can use slang terms, official terms, and don't need to know specifics, most of the time you can pull it up without.

I can see the potential for this to drive an OCD librarian right into an early retirement. But as mentioned in the assignment description for tagging, online tagging is the readers, researchers, writers, organizers FRIEND. It is forgiving and assists in locating things as well as organizing them. I use tagging in my personal blog, at work, my delicious accounts, basically anywhere I am able to organize in that way, I do.

As library staff for us to not embrace tagging for all the good things it offers would be a big mistake!

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