User tags versus expert-assigned subject terms: A comparison of LibraryThing tags and Library of Congress Subject Headings

• Published in: Journal of information science Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 763 - 779
• Main Authors: Caimei Lu, Park, Jung-ran, Xiaohua Hu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2010; Sage Publications; Bowker-Saur Ltd
• Subjects: Bibliographic description. Cataloging; Bibliographic description. Cataloging. Referencing; Classification; Collection; Comparative analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Feasibility; Information and communication sciences; Information and document structure and analysis; Information processing and retrieval; Information science. Documentation; Joints; Libraries; Library and information science; Library cataloging; Library collections; Library of Congress Subject Headings; Marking; Metadata; Obstacles; Sciences and techniques of general use; Social networks; Studies; Subject heading schemes; Tagging; Tags; Vocabularies & taxonomies; Library of Congress Subject Headings; controlled vocabularies; library social tagging; folksonomy; information professionals; users; social annotation; Subject heading; Bibliographic description; Controlled vocabulary; Folksonomy; Tagging; Tag; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0165-5515; 1741-6485
• DOI: 10.1177/0165551510386173

Social tagging, as a recent approach for creating metadata, has caught the attention of library and information science researchers. Many researchers recommend incorporating social tagging into the library environment and combining folksonomies with formal classification. However, some researchers are concerned with the quality issues of social annotation because of its uncontrolled nature. In this study, we compare social tags created by users from the LibraryThing website with the subject terms assigned by experts according to the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The purpose of this study is to examine the difference and connections between social tags and expert-assigned subject terms and further explore the feasibility and obstacles of implementing social tagging in library systems. The results of our study show that it is possible to use social tags to improve the accessibility of library collections. However, the existence of non-subject-related tags may impede the application of social tagging in traditional library cataloguing systems.