Discovery 7 – Tagging

Discover

As librarians we already know all about tagging. Even if we think we don’t. Have a look at our Catalogue page here. You’ll notice there is a tab labelled “Subject” by searching our catalogue by subject we are in fact searching using tags.

So what is tagging?

Tagging is a form of meta-data. A descriptor applied to data to define something about it, usually a searchable term. So we use tagging in libraries for our collections, the tags we use on the catalogue are actually from the Library of Congress Subject Headings for Bibliographic records. These are set tags that we use on our collections to make them searchable by subject.

Generally when we talk about tagging we are talking about user generated meta-data used with many online tools and websites.

Play

By this point in the Learning2.0 program we are already signed up on Flickr, Twitter and have a blog going. All of these tools can benefit from tagging posts or pictures. Think about it, When you do a search for a picture on Flickr. The search results are based on tags from your search term.

Think about what types of online data you can be tagging?

Flickr has a list of tags to the right side on every photo page. Tags can be created for images at or after the time of uploading and tags can even be applied to your photo’s by someone else.

Twitter uses tagging as well. People started creating hashtags for twitter meme’s as well as covering certain topics of interest, for example. A group of people all attending the cebit conference that was held in Sydney in May were using the #cebit tag on their posts. You will also notice #followfriday and #musicmonday on twitter. check out Twitterfall for currently trending topics and tag searches.

When writing your blog posting in your chosen blogging platform (WordPress for most of you) you will notice you can add tags to the posting. Have a look at the Learning2.0 tags we have used on these posts.

Connect!

Place some tags on your flickr photo’s, make sure you tag your next blog postings and try using some #hashtags on twitter.

Now that you’ve used them. Search for them, Try to find your own posts by searching Flickr or Twitter for the tags you used.

Seek out other things that interest you based on key word tagging. (Photography, Gardening, Motorsports, State of Origin etc.)

Create a tag cloud using Wordle and bask in it’s Taggy goodness.