Library Standards

These days articles about tagging often repeat an image of Monk-like librarians freaking out about the rise of folksonomic classification.  One imagines uniformed order-obsessed Gruppen-Kataloguers peering out of a fortress window and muttering about the rabble in the courtyard below.  "Zey need our help," one chuckles, leeringly, fondling a weapon.

As satisfyingly as that may reinforce the stereotypes of some commentators, I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Witness a couple of recent blog entries that take an analytical look the tagging phenom and come up with good news:

Danah Boyd has an interesting blog entry comparing and contrasting recent experiences with Google and the ALA.  It is an entertaining and interesting read.  Highly recommended.
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/10/04/somwhere_inbetw.html