Authority control, as explained in Katherine Wells’ informative article, definitely appeals to the aspiring perfectionist in me. As our world becomes more complicated, and published works proliferate with technological advances spurring on their rapid growth, having a reliable method of being able to locate information will continue to escalate in importance.Wells makes a good case for how authority control creates a structure that helps enable better searching through four functions: authority, finding, information and maintenance. Key word searching is less exact and cannot provide the ‘see from’, ‘see also’, ‘broader terms’ or ‘narrower terms’ that can quickly enhance a mediocre or uninspired search. It also makes it much easier to update huge systems when changes are necessary.
Tagging, that flavor-of-the-month, new-kid-on-the-block, hip, cool form of creating one’s own terms is even less satisfactory than keywords. Many (most?) people use very general tags like “read” or “library_sci”. What I tagged “MH” may have been clear 2 semesters ago, but now it’s just one big question mark. What Julie meant when she created the tag “Lib-web” is something I can only guess . These are the most popular tags on Delicious.com today: design, blog, video, software, tools, music, programming, webdesign, reference, tutorial, art. web, howto, javascript, free, linux, web2.0, development, google, inspiration, photography, news, food, flash. css, blogs, education, and business. How many do you think would be useful for finding exact information?
One of my pet peeves about tagging is that it is not hierarchical. At least mine is far from hierarchical. My del.icio.us account is less organized than a 12-year-old’s desk. Organizing it is somewhere on the proverbial ‘to-do’ list, but not really a high priority. It would surely benefit from some behind the scenes control.
Alas, I have strayed from Wells’ authority control, so let me just say that I agree with her premises . I am partial to authority. I approve of control. To me, its win-win.
.
.
Wells, K.L. (2006). Got authorities? Why authority control is good for your library. Tennessee Libraries (Online), 56(2), 1-12.
Posts
4 comments:
Do you think there are any problems with investing in authority controls that users view as outmoded and don't know how to use? I also love organization and finding aids and tagging is so confusingly ish, but it has been my experience that the average library patron has no idea how to maximize the benefits of authority control. Are better controls better if no one uses them?
Tagging can be misleading since it is so random and subjective, but it can bring really interesting results. One of the more interesting programs I saw about the extremely popular teen vampire series, Twilight, used this "randomness" of tagging. The librarian gave a set of fifteen questions to the teens. Then they had to go to creative commons' flickr and type in their answers. On the first page, they had to choose a picture and repeat this for each question. Then, they made the answer pictures into a mosaic. The questions ranged from "What animal would you not eat?" to "Where would you live as a vampire?" The sample mosaic looked great and really made you wonder at what some of the responses had been. A cool idea and use of tagging!
Hey Bookworm! Thanks for the comment.
I agree that the average library patron cannot maximize the benefits of authority control. Actually, from what I've seen, I'd say not many people can. Period. Neither can most people design jet airplanes, but I'm glad the rest of us can benefit from those who do have the know-how.
But then, pray, why do you abandon logic and leap to "no one" in the next sentence? I am forced to agree with you again: controls cannot be better if no one uses them. However, but I suspect there are some, perhaps lurking in the stacks, who can.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing that anecdote. I'm not clear on the questions that were asked; were they all about the series? I also wonder then if there was one correct answer or oppinion answers as well, and how many of the same images were chosen. It does sound like a fun activity.
Post a Comment