Library social media wins one

Update: We can't make it to today's Nylink/NYPL event. Get your tshirts at ALA Midwinter or by asking for one.

Big news. As you may have heard, OCLC has reversed itself and delayed its new Policy due to take effect in February. They will be setting up a "Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship"*, with broad member consultation promised. At best, they've heard the message and may end up embracing truly free and open library data. (A man can dream!) At worst their strategic retreat gives free-and-open data proponents time to articulate and broaden their case.

For people like me who have been pluging away at this for months and feeling increasingly depressed about what seemed the library world's inevitable slide into data monopoly, it was a big, big win. The LibraryThing team went out to Silly's. That's a party.

Social media won. Content aside, however, it was a big win for library "social media," particularly the "biblioblogosphere."* OCLC's new Policy was rushed through so quickly that it effectively bypassed traditional library-world tools, like professional conference. Press coverage too was minimal, late and mostly dependent on the blogosphere. Even the hastily-convened ARL/ASERL panel hadn't spoken yet when OCLC felt the need to reverse course. The blogosphere was running ten- or twenty-to-one against the Policy.

Other social media also played their part. From the trendy, excitable Twitter to the cliquish Facebook to that forgotten workhorse of professional communication, the Listserv. Even AUTOCAT, which many of the Library 2.0 types I hang out with consider past hope, showed little support for the policy and much criticism. And over them all, the Code4Lib wiki was pressed into action tracking and aggregating what everyone was saying, allowing arguments to build on each other and makin it crystal clear to everyone that they were not alone.

Of course, we don't know why OCLC changed course. There's a rumor going around that important library director or two said they wouldn't abide by it. It's also possible that ARL/ASERL is going to come out solidly against it, and OCLC saw it coming. But even if the ultimate decision rested with some powerful people, they must have drawn on the blogosphere for information and support. Maybe the payoff from all those library-sponsored professional development courses won't come from helping patrons get on the MySpace bus, but from getting the library world off a train to nowhere.

So, open-data people. You're not alone. You have power. The library world is listening. What do you have to say?

Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web

"Walk into the public library in Danbury, Connecticut, and you'll find the usual shelves stacked with books, organized into neat rows. Works of fiction are grouped alphabetically by the author's last name. Nonfiction titles are placed into their propper Dewey Decimal categories just like they are at tens of thousands of other libraries in North America.

But visit the Danbury Library's online catalog, and you'll find something rather unlike a typical library.

"A search for The Catcher in the Rye bring sup not just a call number but also a list of related books and tags—keywords such as "adolescence," "angst," "coming of age," and "New York"—that describe J. D. Salinger's classic novel ... Click the tag "angst," and you'll find a list of angsty titles such as The Bell Jar, The Stranger, and The Virgin Suicides."

So begins Gene Smith's newly released book Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web (New Riders). That's right. The first book dedicated to tagging begins with LibraryThing—specifically our LibraryThing for Libraries project!

Library 2.0 people pause a second. How about that: a book about new developments in social media starts by talking about new things going on in a library? Not a social networking site, not a photo sharing site. A dream come true.

That's all I have to say for now. I knew the book was coming; Gene interviewed me for it (selections on page 134). But I haven't finished it yet.

My first impression is that it's rich and detailed, covering everything from what tagging is and why it matters, to how to implement it at the level of user interface and even technically. But But, as is my wont, I'm already scribbling little objections and expansions in the margins. That's the sign of a good book, right?

I've created a discussion group on Talk for people reading the book. Come join me to talk about it.