Library News

Learning to love the tag cloud?

I was searching the Old Colony Library Network catalog today and for the first time I kind of “got” the cloud display.  It’s not actually supposed to work like facets, it’s sort of the opposite of facets.  Facets help you narrow your search, and the tag cloud expands it. Then I experimented with other libraries that use tag clouds.  The same searches bring up different word clouds in each library.  Sometimes the associations seem weird but hey, if those words are linked in your catalog, why not suggest them to the user? I also see where tag clouds can compensate for the shortcomings of topic facets (“Refine”), which seem to be based on LC subjects.    The tag clouds allow you to bust out of the LC subject framework.  It’s like if someone comes to the library reference desk and asks for something using an incorrect or unfamiliar term–the tag cloud tries to imagine what possible relationship that term might have to something that’s actually in the library. Remember the mean librarian in Sophie’s Choice who humiliates Sophie and sends her away for asking for poetry books by “Emil Dickens”?  Well, with a tag cloud, Sophie might have been able to find it. (Of course then she never would have met Nathan… or Stingo…but on the other hand, that might have worked out better for her in the long run…) Maybe that explains why so many public libraries are choosing to display tag clouds? And maybe when people are researching interdisciplinary topics, the tag cloud might help expand their vocabulary into unfamiliar areas? I know it is popular to make fun of tag clouds, and I have been guilty of that myself.  But they are fun, once you let go of the notion that they are supposed to help you find a particular item, and instead allow yourself to be inspired to use the web catalog as a way of wandering through the collections. That’s what happened to me with the Old Colony Library.  Try it! (navigator.ocln.org) Karen Merguerian

Homework Assignment

I have an assignment for the next two weeks: listen to some rock music and identify the accents in the guitar riffs. I’m sure it’s okay if I listen to blues, too, so I went on over to iTunes and found a few songs in various genres that I thought would be great. Thankfully, I remembered that we probably have some good stuff in our collection before I went hogwild with Leadbelly purchases. And there’s lots of other recordings of American roots music. Now to remember all this when I’m actually at the library. I’ve got lots of listening to do!

Shakespeare on the Common

Every summer the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company puts on a free performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays on the Boston Common. This year’s show, As You Like It, is currently being performed at the Parkman Bandstand on the Common. As You Like It is a comedy about love, loyalty and friendship. I had not previously read or seen this particular play but I very much enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. It’s playing now through Sunday August 3rd. So, if you like Shakespeare, or are just looking for something to do that won’t cost you anything, grab some friends and a picnic and head down to the Boston Common.

Is reading on the Web really reading?

Here I go again on the subject of the Internet and our changing reading habits. I just finished reading a New York Times article (yes, I read it online) (also, be warned, it’s LONG for a web article) focusing on children and teenagers and whether the reading they do on the Internet is as valuable for their intellectual development as reading books. It reports that the number of teens who read books for pleasure is down, according to surveys — but does that matter, if they are still reading for pleasure but now primarily from online sources? The article discusses both sides of the issue and doesn’t draw any conclusions one way or the other, but it’s interesting food for thought. Do you think kids get the same value from reading blogs, online fan fiction, and so on, as they do from reading novels or nonfiction books?