PennTags: University of Pennsylvania Public Library

A high-profile instance of libraries using tagging is PennTags at the University of Pennsylvania Library. Developed for the academic community and launched in 2006, PennTags allows users to tag and annotate items catalogued within the U Penn Library OPAC with their own user-defined tags, in much the same was as del.icio.us functions.

As David Weinberger points out in his blog entry, this function of integrated tagging provides the ability for structured browsing through the library catalogue, with jumping-off points based on folksonomy tags created by its users. Apparently, a link at the bottom reading “Add to PennTags” makes it easy to perform. Unfortunately, this can’t be done without a U Penn login, but Mark Phillipson’s Clayfox blog provides a screen shot of a catalogue page with tag references and some behind-the-scenes details as to how it works (note that this blog posting dates to June 2006, and some changes to PennTags may have been made since).

The “project folders” on the right-hand side of the page are highly practical; they let users add to and view groups of tags that were used for specific projects, and there are a LOT – anything from “Venous Thrombosis in Children” to “A Clockwork Orange”. Some tags are more prolific than others, but on the whole it’s admirably complete. The next time I need information on “Databases and Article Indexes”, I’m going to check out the 83 items that users have tagged within that project folder.

The link to the PennTags site is difficult to find from the main Library site, as it is buried in the Toolbox at the bottom of the page. And once you’re at the PennTags site, there’s no easy link to help you get back; this is fine if you use your back button, but not for any students who may bookmark the site itself. I am assuming that most students are aware of the idea behind PennTags by now and need no explanation of what it is, which is why the link goes directly to the PennTags main page which displays no information about the application. A new user such as myself, however, would appreciate at least an easily visible “what is PennTags” or “how to get started” box in the side bar. Once you do find the about page (link to which is hidden in tiny type at the top right of the screen), it contains full user-friendly instructions.

It’s easy to view all the tags, and the most popular ones - used at least 75 times – are in a cloud at the top of the main page (note: you can select tags from the cloud at the top of the page to view the items within the cloud, but clicking on the individual items refers you to UPenn Library’s login page). I suspect that this “most popular” cloud isn’t dynamic, however; Business Area Studies had 625 tags when I looked at it but doesn’t appear in the cloud. As well, in keeping with the messiness inherent in any non-controlled vocabulary, there are some useless tags (such as , and &amp and typos (like “ny and “library) that were clearly mistakes, and only serve to muck up the list. There were also the inevitable nyc/ny/newyork/new_york duplications, as well as some tags that appear to be identical yet appear twice (ie. beta/beta).

Besides being integrated into the library OPAC, one of the biggest benefits to PennTags is arguably the collaborative aspect. It acts as a collective repository of the academic interests of the university community, and the shared nature of tagging allows others within the community to use the tags to develop the scope of information within each. However, that collaborative aspect can be a drawback for individuals who want to maintain a level of control over what is tagged. In this case, I can certainly see students keeping their own del.icio.us or Connotea accounts in order to keep their tags containing only the items that they feel are relevant.