Folksonomies

When I asked Where's the fight-back from formal classificationists?, Matt pointed me to some very interesting websites, including two at LibraryThing. These projects are great, but they're about bridging the gap between formal classification and folksonomies, rather than shoring up the somewhat dilapidated current state of formal classification.

What I had in mind was a program such as this:

Imagine a theoretical classification scheme, which is still widely used in libraries and would like to be widely used on the Internet. The guiding hands decide that if they are to survive on the Internet they must adapt, to this end they:

In this 20 minute recording, I sit down with Merrilee Proffitt, a program officer in RLG’s Member Programs division.  We'll talk about digital preservation and web archival in particular.  Among other things, we'll also talk about the ArchiveGrid and potential uses of social software. 

Merrilee and a number of others maintain a blog over at hangingtogether.org


This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Spring Task Force Meeting.  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

In this 33 minute recording, I sit down with NYU's Howard Besser.  Howard is a Professor of Cinema Studies and Director of New York University's Moving Image Archiving & Preservation Program, as well as Senior Scientist for Digital Library Initiatives for NYU's Library.

Among other things, he'll share some thoughts on issues facing distance learning, the importance of archiving the raw materials of research, and issues affecting the development and availability of image databases.


This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Spring Task Force Meeting.  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

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:

I've recently encountered a couple of cool tools that can help make your site more interactive and current, on a budget, without driving your webmaster insane.

Want to share a reading list with your audience, such as guides for classroom instruction, podcasting, etc.? LibraryThing is yet another social computing tool that lets you catalog books (ones you own or ones you want) online, organize them with tags, and share your reactions with others. It's incredibly easy to add books -- I had been using Amazon's wish list function to keep track of books on my wish list, and LibraryThing imports these! They also have a "bookmarklet" that lets you add any book you find on Amazon to your library list with one click.

Even cooler, they have a "widget" that you can put on any web site featuring random or selected books -- see an example on my

Though I don't think it uses the word "folksonomy" anywhere, this article in eSchool News contains -- if you can wade through the gee-whiz style -- a couple of neat ideas for application of tagging tools in the classroom. The examples are provided by K-12 educators but could easily be adapted to any instructional context.

C|NET has a nine and a half minute video of Mary Sue Coleman speaking about their library digitization project.
http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6036176.html

The transcript of her speech is available her:
http://www.umich.edu/pres/speeches/060206google.html

In this 19 minute recording, we'll hear from Rachael Bower, Co-Director of the Internet Scout Project.  Join us as she share some thoughts on the project, their CWIS offering, their work with the Applied Math and Science Education Repository, and more!


This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2005 Fall Task Force Meeting.  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

In this 32 minute recording, I join Rick Weingarten, Director of the ALA's Office of IT Policy, for a look inside the beltway.  Join us as he shares a brief bit of background about the American Library Association and a fairly interesting discussion about privacy, the google print litigation, and internet governance.

Also of interest could be ACRL's blog entry noting a number of higher ed associations have released a guide to copyright. Oh, and don't forget resources from our own policy office ;)



This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2005 Fall Task Force Meeting.  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org

In this 28 minute recording, I sit down with New York Public Library's Digital Library Program Director, Barbara Taranto.  Listen in as she compares the work of academic and public libraries, shares her views on social software and the incorporation of technology in the academic enterprise, discusses public and academic library partnerships, disaster recovery/business continuity, google print, and much more.

Those interested in this podcast might also find interest in Lorcan Dempsey's recent blog entry entitled Circulating intentional data.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2005 Fall Task Force Meeting.  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  You can learn more about CNI at their web site, http://www.cni.org