The Social Catalog – What does it mean for librarians?

Last Friday I had to go to Sacramento for a meeting, and the time on the plane gave me a chance to continue my exploration of Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. I seem to only find time to do this kind of reading on airplanes…uninterrupted blocks of time are pretty scarce! At least this time I was smart enough not to attempt to drink orange juice J. Sorting through the stacks on my desk today I came across the following quote that I jotted down on the plane:

"Reality is multifaceted. There are lots of ways to slice it. How we slice it up depends on why we're slicing it up."

A fundamental shortcoming of the library catalog is that it doesn't (and as currently designed can't) know the why for any given search. A search for the subject "breast cancer" in PVLD's catalog results in over 40 distinct subject headings listed in alphabetical order from the simple "Breast – Cancer" through "Breast – Cancer – Religious Life" to "Breast – Cancer – United States". The catalog doesn't know that one person is searching for books on this subject because she has to write a term paper, and another because his wife has just been diagnosed with the disease – and therefore it gives no clue as to which of these subject headings is most relevant to each person.

I was excited by my conversation with Beth Jefferson yesterday because the folks at Bibliocommons understand this dilemma and are finding real, practical ways to harness social networking concepts to transform the catalog into a place where people can slice the information based on their individual "whys" and then share that learning with others whose "whys" might be similar – the social catalog.

Beth and I talked a bit about what all of this means for librarians. After all, we have traditionally seen helping people find relevant information as one of our key roles.

The "reference interview" is really nothing more than a way for a librarian to understand both what information someone is seeking and why so they can help point them to the most relevant resources. This is seen as such a core professional skill that librarians get nervous when "non-professionals" start looking up books for customers because they fear that without the assistance of a librarian the customer may not be made aware of all of the relevant resources.

Similarly, the "pathfinders" and "webliographies" that librarians spend so much time developing and maintaining are attempts to slice up the libraries resources to answer a particular "why".

So what happens when this role of helping people find the information that meets their particular needs is transferred from the librarian to the user community at large? I certainly don't know for sure, but I think some of the areas we need to continue to explore are:

• Reinforcing the librarian's role in developing the systems that underpin the social catalog.
• Providing a human interface to the digital world for those who need or want it – either through traditional tools such as the reference interview (whether conducted in person or online) or by providing training, coaching, and advice.
• Being one of the voices in the social web – sharing our knowledge through the creation of reviews, commentary, lists, etc. We will be just some voices among many, but as Beth Jefferson pointed out to me yesterday librarians should become among the most trusted of sources.
• Creating the programs and services that enhance the library's role as a community hub. We should be the center of a rich network of physical and virtual connections within our communities, and the librarian can play a key role in building that network.

What I do know is that there are and will be many opportunities for us to play a meaningful role in this new digital age – as long as we are not afraid!

Comments

[peter coyne]

Good to hear a librarian also taking David Weinberger's book as an opportunity, rather than a threat! I'm a librarian in the UK, reading the same book, and coming to the same conclusions. Look forward to keeping up with your blog, and sharing ideas on the future of catalogues. I think the idea is starting to hit home that we need to match and be better than the 'competition'- if we're going to have a bright future. So that means good 'customer service' merged with an understanding of the changes of digitisation - embracing the change, and being part of it. Thanks!

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Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

[nokia]

Good to hear a librarian also taking David Weinberger's book as an opportunity, rather than a threat! I'm a librarian in the UK, reading the same book, and coming to the same conclusions. Look forward to keeping up with your blog, and sharing ideas on the future of catalogues. I think the idea is starting to hit home that we need to match and be better than the 'competition'- if we're going to have a bright future. So that means good 'customer service' merged with an understanding of the changes of digitisation - embracing the change, and being part of it. Thanks!

[nokia]

Good to hear a librarian also taking David Weinberger's book as an opportunity, rather than a threat! I'm a librarian in the UK, reading the same book, and coming to the same conclusions. Look forward to keeping up with your blog, and sharing ideas on the future of catalogues. I think the idea is starting to hit home that we need to match and be better than the 'competition'- if we're going to have a bright future. So that means good 'customer service' merged with an understanding of the changes of digitisation - embracing the change, and being part of it. Thanks!

[Steven]

Hey idiot library director who doesn't understand the catalog: The "over 40 distinct subject headings listed in alphabetical order" are the best way to figure out relevance. Tagging is just a bunch of noise on top of a really good system. Get off the bandwagon and use your brain.

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Interesting article. I think one important aspect will be to sort relative material from popular. Something that can be difficult as shown by Digg.

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Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

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[Mmorpg]

I think the social catalog makes life easier for all Librarians, even if they aren't too familiar with the web, as it's really easy to use.

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“A good library is a place, a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet.”

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Jeg synes idéen er begyndt at ramme hjem, at vi er nødt til at matche og være bedre end den "competition'-hvis vi skal have en lys fremtid.

[Benetta Anthony]

Reading Woman was a quarterly we published for six years to help readers filter through the overwhelming number of reading choices in bookstores and libraries. No advertising and no influence by publishers. Just good, grassroots recommendations in a publication we put out ourselves. At the time, the Washington Post Book Supplement listed Reading Woman among the top eight review publications, along with the New York Times Review of Books! Even better than a review publication, however, Reading Woman contained ecommerce only summaries and excerpts. This was great for busy people who didn't want to spend their precious time reading lengthy reviews.

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People were waving flags of teams during the 2010 football World Cup , the world watched together — and they shared their experiences in a real-time, global conversation on the Internet.

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I think one important aspect will be to sort relative material from popular. Something that can be difficult as shown by Digg.

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So that means good 'customer service' merged with an understanding of the changes of digitisation - embracing the change, and being part of it. Thanks!

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So that means good 'customer service' merged with an understanding of the changes of digitisation - embracing the change, and being part of it. Thanks!

[Lew @ Schecter Hellraiser Solo 6]

You are so right about not knowing the why about the search. I also like your social networking ideas. Keep it up:)

[Benny @ EVH Wolfgang]

I forgot to mention that librarians are often used a lot at my library, even though the catalog is digitized. This is especially true with older folks.

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Blogs are so interactive,I think one important aspect will be to sort relative material from popular.

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Wow an interesting model. Thank you for sharing.

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The social catalog is more important for l;libraries. This helps in better search and indexing for the right book or author according to the parameters.