The value of LibraryThing tags for academic libraries

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the percentage of recently published books provided with tags drawn from LibraryThing for Libraries, the nature of these tags, the relation of the tags with keywords in the record and the percentage of records actually enhanced by tags.

Design/methodology/approach - A random sample of 600 records from a catalog of a large academic library was examined to determine whether or not they carry tags. A random sample of 160 records was taken to assess their nature and added value for retrieval purposes.

Findings - It was found that: about one third of the records are provided with tags; 80 percent of the tags are subject terms; 50 percent of the subject tags are covered by a keyword in the record; 25 percent are broader than a keyword and another 25 percent are related, narrower or new. Almost 40 percent of the records with tags can be considered as enriched.

Research limitations/implications - In some cases the determination of the added value required a subjective judgement. It was not examined whether the tags properly reflect the content of the book.

Originality/value - Unlike earlier studies, this study is based on a large and random sample. Tags are compared not only with subject headings, but also with other keywords and differences between disciplines are examined.