On arrival in Christchurch I made my way to Victoria Square where conference attendees were gathering for the Powhiri. What an experience. The call of the putatara (shell trumpet), silence, the karanga and reply, silence, speakers, the waiata and traditional hariru (pressing of noses) – I felt privileged to be part of it all.

The conference theme he tangata, he tangata, he tangata aimed to recognize those who have gone before us, those who surround us at the moment and those who will lead us into the future. Underpinning the theme he tangata, he tangata, he tangata is the understanding that we will acknowledge the past, embrace the present and advance the future.

Here is a summary of one session I particularly enjoyed.

Tim Spalding: Social Cataloguing – What is it, and what it means for Libraries
LibraryThing was created by Tim Spalding. Tim started it as a pet project, to catalogue his own library and for academic and bibliophile friends. He had no idea it would explode like it did.

How LibraryThing Works
LibraryThing is really two sites in one.

First, it is a powerful tool to catalogue your personal library. Users add books to their catalogue by entering titles, authors, or ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers). LibraryThing then searches the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and over 690 world libraries, and returns with precise book data. Users can then edit the books in their catalogue, tag their books with their own subjects (LibraryThing is careful not to suggest tags to use instead providing recommendation lists), and use the Library of Congress (LC) and Dewey Decimal (DDC) systems to organize their collections. Fantastic for local collections!

LibraryThing is also an amazing social space, connecting people with similar libraries. LibraryThing tries to entertain; it makes book recommendations based on the collective intelligence of the other libraries of what you won’t like to read. You can put on your own reveiws, read other peoples reviews and use ‘real terms’ for ‘real people’ rather than use an LC subject heading. An example Tim gave was the use of LC heading Neuromancer, in LC LibraryThing users put Cyberpunk. LC uses headings such as Love stories – what is that exactly, this is a heading hard to maintain and what of it’s relevance?

So what does social cataloguing mean for Libraries?
Is it the end of cataloguing – no. Tim defends the need and value of structured metadata but states that shouldn’t be all we have. Social cataloguing will become increasingly central to library systems data.
The physical library was human (waving through the card catalogue) then came the first wave of technology which dehumanised it. Social cataloguing can rehumanise the library and everyone can help.

Tim states before libraries get excited about joining the world of web2.0 they need to join the world of web1.0. Often you can’t link to library catalogue records; they’re all session-based. Why? People need to be able to bookmark and share. Go with the grain of the internet, not against it. Libraries Tim believes are going the wrong way. LibraryThing gets twice as much traffic as WorldCat. He asks us to trust people, put our books online and risk people might find the “wrong thing” or tag it the “wrong way”.

This is an opportunity to reinvigorate library technology; to reconsider some LIS thinking and improve systems. A chance to embrace the best traditions of librarianship: radial openness, public spirit, focus, connection. Open source products are needed. Face it guys – People can’t find your books on your library catalogues but they can on Google.

As a cataloguer I found Tim’s session very thought provoking and had to agree with most (not all) of what he was saying.

For me conference wasn’t only about attending informative sessions, being inspired buy what others are achieving and wanting to do more for the customers at my library. It was also a time for me to remember why I am working in libraries, what I love about libraries. It was a chance for me to meet some wonderful people and catch up with old friends.

I wish to thank CatSIG for providing me the opportunity to attend conference and recommend to others to apply in the future as the benefits are numerous.

Angela