[Koha] User tagging

[Hernandez, Heather]

Hi, Galen--

If you consider a couple of years a long time, then we've been using the
tags for a long time!:)  We've had the feature turned on since we went live
on Koha:

http://keys.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-tags.pl

We do moderate the tags.  We haven't had anyone try to add any
inappropriate tags, but we have caught tags that were misspelled, or very
similar to tags already assigned, so we rejected those and then added a
correctly spelled tag or the tag already in use.

We find the tags very useful for accessing something very particular about
the title that wouldn't be brought out by subject headings or other access
points.  E.g., we've had some interest in dandyfunk, so we were able to add
the tag "dandyfunk" to every item that either discussed it or had a recipe
for it that we found.  We use Library of Congress subject headings, and
"dandyfunk" is too specific a term for there to be an LC subject heading
for that, so this is a useful way to access titles by such a very specific
term particular to our discipline (maritime history).  (Likewise, the tag
"crackerhash.")  Most of the tags fall into this category--a term too
specific for LCSH, and/or too small a percentage of the title to qualify
for a subject heading.

Tags for awards have also proven useful and popular, e.g., "nobel" and
"pulitzer."  We don't normally mention awards in the records, simply
because we haven't the staff time--adding a tag is a lot easier for
providing this access than formulating a correctly worded note & editing
the bib record, and seems to provide good enough access for the awards of
interest.

I hope this is helpful!  Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Cheerio!
heather
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heather Hernandez
Technical Services Librarian
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Research Center
heather_hernandez at nps.gov
415-561-7032 (voice)       415-556-3540 (fax)
http://www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/museum-collections.htm

"The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail."--Gustaf Lindborg