Week 6: #13 Tagging makes the web 2.0 world go round

I was first introduced to tagging via the Flickr photo-sharing website, where users can add subject tags to their photos search them, and group them. For example, before my recent vacation to South Padre Island (click to see the results of such a search), I did a tag search on Flickr for “Padre Island” and was able to get a nice visual preview of the beaches and attractions on the Island.

I got very excited about tags when, in library school, I was introduced to the concept of a “tag cloud” (image included is a tag cloud for the on-line catalog of the Ann Arbor Public Library), used for searching databases of tags. A tag cloud is a visual (digital) representation of tags, with the words that make up the tags appearing larger or smaller depending on a certain variable element regarding the tags in the database (usually this is the number of items which have a particular tag – tags which have few items associated with them appear small, those with many items appear larger).

Tag clouds struck me as a highly intuitive interface for searching, for example, library catalogs. Tag clouds might be more user-friendly than the search access interfaces for most contemporary integrated library systems. Adding the ability for library patrons to also create their own subject tags for library holdings (in addition to the “official” bibliographic metadata concerning the catalog created by library catalogers) also struck me as a great way to allow users to search using more natural and contemporary language. This kind of collaborative interaction with the collection would simultaneously create community interest and buy-in to the bibliographic resources of a library, as well as creating a new resource for access in itself. A working model of this sort of activity exists already. In the LibraryThing website’s use of tags for books, we see this sort of collaborative action at play, creating social networks for discussion and interest about books both in the public sphere and people’s own private libraries.

Tagging is also an option on in the indispensable bookmarking website, del.icio.us, although what is being tagged there is not books, but websites and on-line resources. For anyone who uses more than one computer and accesses the internet at different locations, del.icio.us is a tremendous resource, allowing immediate retrieval of your essential bookmarks from anywhere in the digital world. Like Karl Malden used to say in the American Express commercials: “don’t leave home without it”.

While use of tags can be helpful as a reference tool, where you can search through users’ tags for various subjects, use of tags is necessary to access and organize the sites and resources which you have collected and bookmarked yourself. The tags, on del.icio.us, are an integral part of the operation of the application itself – kind of a built-in tool.

Week 5: #11 LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a website which allows you to virtually catalog your own personal book collection, creating on on-line database about your collection to which you can add various information (or metadata, as the really scary librarians call it) and share with other users throughout the world. The data you create in LibraryThing regarding your collection can be channeled into various on-line uses, similar to the wonderful XML-driven RSS feeds found on most blogs (for more info on RSS, please see my previous entry). One example of what LibraryThing can do is shown here on the right hand of my blog, where a random selection of 20 books from my collection are shown, with a different random set appearing each time someone comes to my blog page or refreshes the page. It’s a cool way to show off, er, to share your reading interests with other people. LibraryThing will also show you other users whose collections are similar to your own, and allow you to communicate with those users, either through email or in on-line forums.

Week 5 #10: Play around with Image Generators

I used Flickr’s FDToys to create the above image, showing a view of South Padre Island, where I spent 4 days last week on vacation.

FDToys allows you to add various textual and pictorial elements to already existing images. It also allows you to directly upload and manipulate images you have stored on the Flickr photo sharing site.

Week 4 #9 & #8: RSS, Newsreaders, and Finding Feeds

RSS (or Real Simple Syndication) is a means for automatically browsing on-line news sources or blogs (or practically any site that has regularly updated content in which you are interested) and having that new content condensed and delivered to one newsreader page for you. RSS runs through the miracle of XML, a programming language which makes digital content almost universally useable by any variety of computing devices (personal computers, mobile phones, television receivers, etc.) or applications.

If you’re still with me, let me assure you that in practical terms, RSS is a godsend. Instead of browsing around and visiting each individual website which has content in which you are interested, your one newsreader webpage does all the work for you. I use an RSS newsreader everyday (http://www.bloglines.com), used it extensively while in graduate school and now in my professional life for checking new additions to collaborative wiki pages or collaborative message boards and such. RSS is an essential tool for any internet user today.

Lollagators and image editors

I created this "lollagator" image using the online image editor Picnik, which allows you to manipulate your images visually in various ways, but also allows you to add text to create "lols", unlike many of the others available online. Picnick also allows you to directly upload your images to a Flickr account, if you have one, another unique feature.

I'm not saying these are typical library patrons, but they do show how big people's smiles get when they get their new library cards.

FlickRing and Trading Cards

Confession time: the primary purpose of this blog is fulfill the exercises of Harris County Pubic Library's iHCPL program. In this program employees of HCPL get an introduction to, and learn to implement many of the new resources and applications (popularly known as Web 2.0 applications or social software) available on the internet. In real life, I have been dealing with these things for many years. I created my first webpage back in 1993, etc. etc. However, the iHCPL program is quite comprehensive, and I am getting fully informed on a number of resources and possibilities to which previously I had only a glancing introduction.

In this post, I want to mention fulfilling two of the exercises.

First:
I have created a Flickr photo-sharing account. As most of you probably know, Flickr is a website/resource for uploading, saving, and sharing images and photography. These images can also be tagged with concise subject labels called "tags". By browsing these tags through searches, much social interaction goes on in the realm of Flickr. For example, if you are interested in images (and people taking photos) of your hometown, you would simply search for your town's name. You can make comments regarding each photograph and thus interact with the account-holder.

Second:
One of the images on on my Flickr account is my librarian trading cardTM. I created this with FDToys, a web application with which one is able to immediately create a trading card similar to those used for role-playing games or sports. Librarianship is sometimes both a role-playing game and a sport, but it never pays quite as well as either. In any case, my card presents my "special library powers", along with an image from one of my favorite music albums.

Cy-Fair College Library Circulation REPRESENT!

On the edge of the Katy Prairie is a glass palace of learning called Cy-Fair College. In the college is a wonderful library beloved by all the people of the community. I run the circulation department there. Welcome to my blog.


--Scott Gilbert