Reading Response #2

Please read the rules about using posted assignments before reading onward. 

Can user generated tags make users use catalogs more often? Information professionals are just starting to write about the tagging features made popular by Delicious and Flickr. Librarians frustrated with the controlled vocabulary of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are toying with the idea of incorporating user tags into library catalogs in order for them to be more user friendly. Peter J. Rolla’s article “User Tags versus Subject Headings,” a study about LibraryThing, provides a mixed review.

LibraryThing is a great site to publicly record and organize your book collection. User tags make this organization possible, allowing users to sort their books according to their own tags. It is as if a LibraryThing’s user created his or her own controlled vocabulary to define their collection. As with everything, user tags are both a virtue and a vice. The use of “folksonomies” can lead more general users to a book of their choice, but the lack of controlled vocabulary can make non-standard terminology a barrier in finding another book. This arises because of several factors, including synonyms, misspellings, and irrelevant personal tags.

As with many of the articles we have read in both LIS 501 and LIS 502, librarians must change with the environment and its users. We must try to save what worked in the past and blend it with the things that work in the present. In my opinion, though, Rolla’s call for more research should be replaced with a call for experimentation. The University of Illinois Vufind beta is starting to feature both, and hopefully will prove as successful as I think it can be.


Rolla, P. J. (2009). Can user-supplied data improve subject access to library collections? Library Resources & Technical Services 53(3): 174-184.

Reading Response #1

Please read the rules about using posted assignments before reading onward.

Class: LIS 501
Posted date: October 22nd, 2009

    Janet Swan Hill’s article “Entering an Alternative Universe […],” (2008) a paper based on a keynote speech, summarizes what I have heard from many people about the paradoxical world of librarians. There is a sentimental side, where librarians take time to find exactly what a user wants and believe themselves to be keepers of a public resource. The alternative universe, or the utilitarian side, finds librarians focusing on effectiveness and efficiency, by introducing automation that streamline a librarian’s work. Both exist side by side in today’s libraries, hindering any progress in finding ways to cope with desperate financial circumstances.
    Hill’s call to be open-minded about changes in cataloging are necessary in today’s world. In order to be relevant to our uses, we must change cataloging procedures that make sense to them. However, as Hill also suggests, we must ask some tough questions first, such as “What is our purpose? […] Do any of the things we are concentrating on distract from the main purpose?” (Hill, 2008, p. 226). These questions will put librarians on track to making decisions that could change the ways libraries work.
    Unfortunately, there is a catch -- not all librarians have the same answers to these questions. The little experience I have in the library world showed me that each librarian is usually an independent person with a lot of opinions. In order to bring about changes in cataloging, these independent minded people must decide to adapt for the sake of their library’s future. It will be a long road for real change to come to the catalog.


Hill, J. S. (2008). Entering an alternatve universe: Some consequences of implementing recommendations of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. Library Resources & Technical Services 52(4): 218-226.

Posting Assignments

In one of my LEEP classes, we are asked to share our responses and essays with the class.  I like seeing other people's work, and it makes me think about what I believe about the profession.

Following in LEEPERS 14.1 example, I will post some of my assignments up for people to see.  I just have two rules:

1) I take constructive criticism, not flames,

and

2) don't plagiarize -- that doesn't help anyone (not that I think my writing is worth plagiarizing in any way).  You can paraphrase, you can quote, but don't say it's your own!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I'm a Liar Too

What can I say?  It happens to the best of us.  I think I wrote down that I was going to try a weekly/biweekly blog, but its been about a month since my last post.

It's week 8 and depite the online factor I feel almost exactly the same as last fall in undergrad.  I do what I have to do, I read the materials I believe are the most important, and though I am not the biggest participator, I attend and listen. 

The thing is that this semester is different than other semesters.  For once, I am actually pursuing my hobbies.  I am mass producing handmade greeting/holiday cards in order to sell at a couple of craft shows, so that is my nighttime activity.  I am taking a "class" on Ukrainain embroidery, so I try to put a little time into embroidering and designing every day.  And then, of course, I am in a long distance relationship- its hard, but I can't help it!

In short, I'm genuinely busy.

It's the LEEP weekend, and I am having a lot of fun.  The Rare Books and Special Collection day was especially AWESOME.  We were able to looks (and sometimes even touch) some of the objects in the collections.  Here are some of my highlights:

- manuscript with a doodle of a bird on the margin (I guess a Medieval reader got bored?)
- one of the first engineering books ever created
- a book of encyclopedia plates which had directions for everything, including building your own boat
-gloriously old and beautiful maps
-Irish political cartoons that make no sense to me, but must've made sense back in the times of the Land Acts
- a book with beautiful hand painted pictures of homes and cover of inlaid leather.
- "So Long, Hot-Metal Men" by Henry Morris: a book of his own typesettings, from Bird and Bull Press
- letters from Joseph Conrad to H. G. Wells, showing his creative process in writing books
- the manuscript for "The Time Traveler"
- story boards from Citizen Kane

and the motherload of motherloads: the Book of Genesis, from a Gutenburg Bible.  The amount of text lines increase thoughout the book, which makes people assume that this might've been from one of the earlier prints of the Bible....wow

As for today, the 501 presentations in Preservation were so enlightening.  There were four different preservationists/conservators talking about the different materials they deal with: general collection, special collection, a/v equipment, digital files, and musical instruments.  I learned about how they fix 100 year old horns, backup files, freeze/bake cassette tapes, and how they decide to chuck a book into the dumpster.  I had no idea that these librarians had disaster plans, and how they accept their imperfect environments and work with them.  I have a growing interest in digitization, so it was really cool to hear about all of these different problems conservators have trying to fix and/or put these objects on the internet.

This weekend is really turning out great.  My group for the 501 project is filled with wonderful people, its great to see everyone from 14.1, and meet people from 14.2.  It's been fun  :D  I can't go to the dinner, but I am virtually saying "hi" to everyone!