Contextual metadata: faceted schemas in virtual library communities

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the information needs of one user group, public library fiction readers, in order to reveal a design of an online community at the local level. Examination of user‐generated metadata can reveal new approaches to information architecture.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review into behaviors of virtual communities; surveying public library readers regarding search behavior characteristics – the survey included a sample “tagging” exercise to determine whether public library communities could create meaningful metadata for retrieval purposes.Findings – The use of relevance as an indicator of tag quality is flawed: in a survey, public library readers “tagged” the novel The Da Vinci Code. The resulting collection of tags provided a richer description of the book than did the social book‐related web site www.librarything.com. Tag collections can be broken down into different categories, each reflecting a different “facet” of the novel: character, plot,...