A lack of definition for subject tags

internetarchive / openlibrary-librarians

Coordination between the OpenLibrary.org Librarian community

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A lack of definition for subject tags #13

Closed BrittanyBunk closed 4 years ago

BrittanyBunk commented 4 years ago

Problem

It seems like the lack of a definition of what a 'subject' is creates various issues: 1) People might add in tags that might not be true subjects 2) An inconsistency forms between the OL and IA subjects: https://internetarchive.slack.com/archives/C0ETZV72L/p1586201847229900

Solutions

A community discussion about what a subject tag is, along with a consensus on what to use
provide instructions for subject tags when entering them in
possibly splitting the subject tag categories out further (than just people, places, etc.) to accommodate different subject tags that do belong, but just not with each other

seabelis commented 4 years ago

The paragraphs about subject headings were removed when the subjects page was revised. I've restored those paragraphs.

BrittanyBunk commented 4 years ago

@seabelis It's much better, specifying the place, people, and time period. It just doesn't specify what "general subjects" are (just says 'subject matter' or 'imitate or enhance existing headings, or create an entirely new one'). I was thinking something like adding http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html in here somewhere and instructions on how to incorporate them. Thoughts?

dcapillae commented 4 years ago

I've often thought about this issue. It would be ideal to have a basic tagging scheme, with a few subjects working as main classification categories and some subjects working as subcategories of each main subjects. A minimal hierarchical system for classifying any book, with categories and subcategories, combined perhaps with tags of free choice by the user.

If there was a similar scheme for subjects, the user could even be asked to always enter at least one main subject when adding a new book to OL.

seabelis commented 4 years ago

@dcapillae What you're describing sounds similar to my proposal of having a controlled taxonomy, which would be a managed vocabulary from a limited list of options in addition to folksonomy, which would be the freeform tagging system as currently exists.

jessamynwest commented 4 years ago

Yeah "subject" is a thing that makes sense to librarians and can otherwise be a little confusing but I am strongly in favor of a controlled vocabulary of some sort.

seabelis commented 4 years ago

Closing this as it's an issue that will involve developers.