Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Folksonomies

FOLK + TAXONOMY = FOLKSONOMY

Folksonomies are classification systems (think Dewey Decimal System or Library of Congress Classification system), which help librarians annotate and categorize collections/information. They are also widely referred to as: collaborative tagging, social classification, social tagging, or social indexing. The name is derived from the idea that folksonomies are classification systems that are created by the folk that use them (a.k.a.) a community. You may question what is the difference between and folksonomy and an ontology, Theodosia Togia has a great information set that shows the differences here.

There are two major types of folksonomies:

  1. Broad Folksonomy
    • Has multiple users, and uses various terminology to create a lot of metadata (data that describes data).
  2. Narrow Folksonomy
    • Has few users, limited terminology, and the content is creator initiated.
Some potential problems with folksonomies are the lack of consistency, lack of reliability, and uncontrolled vocabularies. The Dublin Core  was created by information scientists to resolve these problems, however being able to have the dublin core tags applied to your site, you have to pay. 

Libraries have begun integrating folksonomies into their OPAC. Kate Baker at The Idaho Librarian gives a great overview in the difference between library catalogs and folksonomies, and ultimately concludes that folksonomies allow for better service to be offered by libraries. In this way, folksonomies are very useful to libraries and offer insight into community needs, interests, and the overall way in which they think. Folksonomies are definitely useful in building a better future for libraries. 


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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 20, 2015 at 7:36 AM

    Shauna,

    I like how you included the definition of Broad and Narrow Folksonomies in your post to refresh your readers of the differences between the two. I am sure folksonomies are especially useful to you considering your work in libraries. How do you compare folksonomies to the dewey decimal system? I have never really understood the system even though I was taught in in elementary school. I totally agree with your point about how folksonomies lack consistency due to the different choice of vocabulary words for users. I have never really used any social tagging prior to this course other than hashtags on twitter and tags on facebook so i thought it was neat to learn about them and I think they are useful especially for our class and the tag we use, MC495!

    -Lindsey

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    1. UnknownMay 20, 2015 at 8:52 PM

      Lindsey, it actually turns out I haven't had formal training on Dewey decimal classification yet. From what I have picked up in passing from various readings, I think while Dewey is a taxonomy widely used, folksonomies would be far more intuitive to the user. Folksonomies, being created by the community they serve, classify information in ways logical to the local populace, whereas Dewey was created (and is edited) by library professionals. I much prefer having organization that even the newest library patron can use, and I myself do not prefer to use Dewey. If anything I find the Library of Congress Classification system to be the easiest for me to use.

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  2. UnknownMay 20, 2015 at 1:11 PM

    You're blog post has been very informative. I had no idea what a folksonomy was until this class. Thank you for the additional information on folksonomies that can be found at The Idaho Librarian. I will definitely be checking that out.

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