Tagging

When I hear the term "tagging" I think of people writing on walls - graffiti or street artists. Of course the kind of "tagging" we are talking about in Thing Thirteen occurs on the web. Everything needs to be categorized somehow and tagging accomplishes this but sometimes in a random way. I get to choose what tag I attach to my photos, webpages, or posts. I can assign them to more than one category so they can be assigned more than one tag. This is great for me but others may not agree with my tags.

Tagging is something that is very useful on the web. It is something that should be encouraged because it makes things easier to find. I believe that librarians are probably better at tagging due to their experience with Subject Headings. We understand the need to be able to locate things and tagging assists with this process. I am not sure how useful tagging would be in a library. Since the purpose of tagging is to allow me to choose what category I put things into this goes against the way the library is categorized. The library "tagging" aka cataloging is a set system to prevent individual selection of categories. It is done this way to keep things consistent so items can be located easily. Tagging removes this consistency and replaces it with individualism. This would not work in a library. The library does promotes individualism just not when it comes to the placement of materials.