How best to use tags in LibraryThing?
September 23, 2011 12:42 PM Subscribe
If you use LibraryThing, how do you use tags and collections? I am afraid I am doing it wrong
I suppose there is no "wrong" because it's for my own use, right? But it aggregates tags so I'm constantly worrying I'm putting on useless tags that will ruin it for others. At first I was tagging my books with my name and my husband's books with his name, but perhaps those should be collections? Do you tag or "collect" based on where in your house/shelves the books are?
It's so much novel organizational ability I'd like some ideas about the best way to use it! This should not be stressful! This should be fun!
I welcome other power-user tips.
I've tagged one bookshelf's worth of books, which works out to a little more than 150 so far, if that matters. I'd rather get this right from the start than have to go back through fixing tons of books.
I suppose there is no "wrong" because it's for my own use, right? But it aggregates tags so I'm constantly worrying I'm putting on useless tags that will ruin it for others. At first I was tagging my books with my name and my husband's books with his name, but perhaps those should be collections? Do you tag or "collect" based on where in your house/shelves the books are?
It's so much novel organizational ability I'd like some ideas about the best way to use it! This should not be stressful! This should be fun!
I welcome other power-user tips.
I've tagged one bookshelf's worth of books, which works out to a little more than 150 so far, if that matters. I'd rather get this right from the start than have to go back through fixing tons of books.
Best answer: If you want to switch from tags to collections, you can do so pretty easily.
posted by zamboni at 12:55 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by zamboni at 12:55 PM on September 23, 2011
Best answer: As someone who's been a member since 2005, I haven't bothered to redo my organization since Collections came along. I had everything tagged prior to Collections. Examples of my tagging are Harry Potter books == "fantasy, harry potter, magic, own" and Erin McCarthy's Bad Boys Online == "nerd romance, contemporary romance, short stories, romance, own".
I still tag everything the same way and I add things to collections as an add on. So my tags and collections to overlap. Books in my Fantasy collection will also have a "fantasy" tag, books in Wishlist still have a "to buy" tag, and "to read" are on the books in the To Read Collection, etc.
I think the best thing is to do what makes sense to you as you'll be the one searching your catalog for books regularly and not anyone else. I'd be sad if folks did otherwise because I wouldn't the joy of seeing what books others thought were "vampire smut" (because those I know I need to read).
posted by bluesapphires at 1:30 PM on September 23, 2011
I still tag everything the same way and I add things to collections as an add on. So my tags and collections to overlap. Books in my Fantasy collection will also have a "fantasy" tag, books in Wishlist still have a "to buy" tag, and "to read" are on the books in the To Read Collection, etc.
I think the best thing is to do what makes sense to you as you'll be the one searching your catalog for books regularly and not anyone else. I'd be sad if folks did otherwise because I wouldn't the joy of seeing what books others thought were "vampire smut" (because those I know I need to read).
posted by bluesapphires at 1:30 PM on September 23, 2011
Best answer: I haven't bothered too much with collections, although I do try to file all my Religious Tract Society books in one place. I tag according to period (Victorian, nineteenth century...), country of origin, subject, and genre.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:34 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by thomas j wise at 1:34 PM on September 23, 2011
Best answer: I don't use collections, although I like that the feature is there. I tag by subject, period, original language, series, sometimes publisher, and a few random things.
Collections would be a good way to demarcate your books and your husband's, but I wouldn't worry about tagging stuff "badly." The whole point of tag clouds is that a consensus emerges naturally out of the aggregate tagging of a single object by multiple people. If 99,999 people tag their copy of Lord of the Rings with "fantasy" and you tag yours with "gift from grandma," it isn't going to cause any problems for anybody else because your tag is statistically insignificant.
posted by twirlip at 2:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Collections would be a good way to demarcate your books and your husband's, but I wouldn't worry about tagging stuff "badly." The whole point of tag clouds is that a consensus emerges naturally out of the aggregate tagging of a single object by multiple people. If 99,999 people tag their copy of Lord of the Rings with "fantasy" and you tag yours with "gift from grandma," it isn't going to cause any problems for anybody else because your tag is statistically insignificant.
posted by twirlip at 2:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Power Edit is your friend.
(Especially once you have the books tagged, because then you can move and re-tag things easily.)
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 3:25 PM on September 23, 2011
(Especially once you have the books tagged, because then you can move and re-tag things easily.)
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 3:25 PM on September 23, 2011
Best answer: I tag all my books by genres that I think they fit into, original language or culture they were written in (Japanese, Swedish, Russian etc), I add "abandoned" to books I reviewed but gotten rid of cause they were rubbish (I don't want the reviews to disappear. Learnt about that one the hard way, doh), and I also personally tag if they are on loan, and who has borrowed them.
Don't feel guilty about it, people tag for all different reasons. I get a real kick out of seeing what other - sometimes very wacky indeed - tags people have added to books I own.
I also have a tag for one supra-genre: "shit".
I link to my LT from my profile here, take a gander if you like. :)
posted by smoke at 5:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Don't feel guilty about it, people tag for all different reasons. I get a real kick out of seeing what other - sometimes very wacky indeed - tags people have added to books I own.
I also have a tag for one supra-genre: "shit".
I link to my LT from my profile here, take a gander if you like. :)
posted by smoke at 5:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Best answer: I've been a member since 2005. I started with LibraryThing begcause I wanted to know exactly what I had (and hadn't lost, loaned, or been robbed of). I used tags of value to me. I have never once thought of other people browsing my library. Why do you care about that? But, I suppose, if that is of deep importance to you then this answer is of no value.
My general rule is: there are no rules; do what makes sense to you. In my experience, people who demand rules wind up with rulers. (Mind you, sometimes this is what they're after.)
posted by CCBC at 12:41 AM on September 24, 2011
My general rule is: there are no rules; do what makes sense to you. In my experience, people who demand rules wind up with rulers. (Mind you, sometimes this is what they're after.)
posted by CCBC at 12:41 AM on September 24, 2011
Best answer: I'm not too much of a power user, but I enjoy LT a lot. One of my favorite features (not mind-blowing, but it's mighty handy for me): the "Members With Your Books" feature (My Profile page, right-hand column). It tips me off to books I might enjoy, based on others' collections. You can look at people who share your reading interests, in weighted and raw numbers.
posted by Rykey at 11:38 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by Rykey at 11:38 AM on September 24, 2011
Best answer: I use collections for a couple of things: for books I want to keep distinct from my own library - books that I've read but don't own for whatever reason - and to keep track of what I'm reading and when I read it. I use tags both on the larger scale: genre, location, any other interesting features; and on the smaller scale: read, unread, signed, who I've lent them to. My LT is linked from my profile page here too if you want to have a look.
posted by featherboa at 1:41 PM on September 24, 2011
posted by featherboa at 1:41 PM on September 24, 2011
Response by poster: "your tag is statistically insignificant."
My mind knows this but my perfectionism is freaking out. :)
I think I'll tag for now but owner and by broad genre and personal meaning, and then I'll convert owners to collections, and I can probably fiddle with genres. It's interesting to look at those of you who invited me to.
hee hee, vampire smut
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:33 PM on September 24, 2011
My mind knows this but my perfectionism is freaking out. :)
I think I'll tag for now but owner and by broad genre and personal meaning, and then I'll convert owners to collections, and I can probably fiddle with genres. It's interesting to look at those of you who invited me to.
hee hee, vampire smut
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:33 PM on September 24, 2011
Best answer: I have a bunch of books that only one or two other LTers have in common with me, so even their statistically insignificant tags show up on these books. I figure that the tags matter mostly when searching, and not so much when looking through books manually, so a combination of functional and descriptional/contextual tags are fine, I think.
I use my collections as featherboa does - to keep track of what I have read (by year), what I am reading, what I have read, what I have to read, what I have read but don't own, etc. I find collections easier to use than tags, since you can choose those while you are adding books to your library and they are usually broader in function than tags.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:42 PM on September 27, 2011
I use my collections as featherboa does - to keep track of what I have read (by year), what I am reading, what I have read, what I have to read, what I have read but don't own, etc. I find collections easier to use than tags, since you can choose those while you are adding books to your library and they are usually broader in function than tags.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:42 PM on September 27, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by divisjm at 12:54 PM on September 23, 2011