Tagging

I had never heard of the term "tagging" before I read the article on Wikipedia. Tagging actually appeals to me as a librarian because different people tag different things different ways. If I was looking for a website pertaining to a specific subject and used a different tag than someone else to search for that information, surely I wouldn't be the only one to use that particular tag. Tagging leaves room for individual and regional differences and could also help me to expand my searches.

I can also see some of the drawbacks. Some of the tags will definitely become outdated just as some of the library subject headings have. For instance, we now use Native Americans rather than Indians and African Americans rather than Blacks. Also, there will be multiple tags for the same information. That may or may not be a drawback. It would be nice to have all the information under the same tag, but then again, I might not think to tag the information in that way.

I will have to think about this some more, but I feel pretty positive about it at this point. It will not and should not, in my opinion, replace subject headings and probably should not be used with library cataloging, but it definitely has a place on the web.