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!

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I think it is hard to catalog information based on the question on why people are looking for a particular information. I think it entails a lot of work and it is difficult to slice up information in such way.

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