Aquabrowser My Discoveries and Social library catalogues Thing 21

I have always enjoyed viewing tag clouds. Following various links on the cloud and looking at results. Sometimes I am surprised by the tags allocated to an object.

Traditional catalogues are very structured and compiled following strict rules in order to maintain quality. I love this.

Then the internet appeared. So much information. Google was an immediate favourite with millions of internet users. No structured catalogues for retrieval, but information retrieval based on popularity and use. At first I was sceptical about the quality of results, but then I learned how to scan these results. I was pleased with the new way of information retrieval.

The concept of social sharing on the internet became more acceptable and used by billions. Again my thoughts went out to the quality of input and retrieval on these social sites. I am often sceptical about the tags offered for eventual retrieval of information.

I have been using WorldCat much longer than Aquabrowser Library. It has been interesting viewing the process of WorldCat becoming more sociable.

After visiting the social library catalogues and looking at the functionalities and the content I come to realize the potential. With social library catalogues library resources are becoming more visible. Providing the user with a single point of access to a wide range of retrieval possibilities.

Visibility leading to sharing! Information and resource sharing being one of my career and life goals.

Social library catalogues providing traditional bibliographic information, like title, author, publisher and year of publication enhanced by tags, ratings, reviews and comments provided by fellow users.

My Discoveries and My WorldCat allowing user-friendly access to national and international information sources.

Looking forward to future developments in information sharing via social library catalogues. Combining the skills of information technologists, information specialists and librarians and the requirements of library and information users.