Enhancing Subject Access to Materials in Library OPACs: Are Folksonomies the Answer?

Abstract

This research will examine a given set of books and compare their LibraryThing folksonomic tags with their assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings. In particular, I am looking for commonalities and differences in the ways in which these subject languages describe the materials to which they are applied. Can folksonomies be used to enhance subject access to materials in library catalogs? What does user tagging tell us about the way that people think about the subjects of a book? In an information environment where students are so attuned to keyword and Google-style searching, does the application of folksonomic tags increase the findability of library materials?