community tagging in encore @vu a brief survey of tags and taggers
TRANSCRIPT
Community Tagging in Encore @VU
A brief survey of tags and taggers
Community tags?
In Encore the community tagging feature enables patrons to log in and add their own tags to records. These are visible to everybody at the bottom of the full record and in the tag cloud.
• Encore went live as the primary search interface at VU in December 2008.
• Tagging feature given no specific publicity.• Analysis of tagging carried out until end of July
2009• During this period a total of 103 tags were added
by 66 patrons (approx. 3 per week)
Tagging@VU
Who tagged?
Who tagged more?
• Undergraduate students: 44% of taggers, about 30% of VU Library patrons
• Postgraduate students: 14% of taggers, around 6% of patrons
• Other over-represented groups were academic staff and Library staff
Who tagged less?
• TAFE students: 24% of taggers, although around 40% of Library patrons
• Offshore students: 5% of taggers, about 10% of patrons
• Other under-represented groups were non-Library general (non-teaching) staff and TAFE staff
What kinds of tags?• Descriptors/identifiers (64%)e.g. microeconomics, documentary spain, 791.4372 vol, acl1001
(including call numbers and subject codes)
• Messages/notes (16%)e.g. ass [assignment?], hold, “make I reserve the immigration kit
and pick up in the law campus, please”
• Numbers (10%)Single digits e.g. 1,2. (Maybe ratings? Different patrons have
added them to different records so there is a pattern).
• Patron data (6%)ID, PIN, name (confusion with the login process? Or just
ownership?)
• Mysteries (4%)
How are we managing tags?• Using Encore Tag Admin, tags can be deleted or
‘whitelisted’ (approved)• Once whitelisted they can only be deleted by the
tagger or by asking III• We decided not to whitelist tags, but to periodically
delete old tags which do not add value to retrieval• So far we have had no complaints from anyone
that their tags have been removed, or anyone requesting that a tag be removed. No feedback at all…
Conclusions• The tagging feature is being used, but not
heavily. Perhaps it needs promotion, perhaps it is not visible enough, or perhaps our users just don’t feel the need?
