Social Tagging in a Linked Data Environment

Social tagging, hashtags, and geotags are used across a variety of platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress, Instagram) in different countries and cultures. This book, representing researchers and practitioners across different information professions, explores how social tags can link content across a variety of environments.

Most studies of social tagging have tended to focus on applications like library catalogues, blogs, and social bookmarking sites. This book, in setting out a theoretical background and the use of a series of case studies, explores the role of hashtags as a form of linked data - without the complex implementation of RDF and other Semantic Web technologies.

Readership: Social Tagging in a Linked Data Environment will be useful reading for practicing library and information professionals who implement electronic access to collections, including cataloguers, systems developers, information architects and web developers. It would also be useful for students taking programmes on Library/Information science, Information Management, Computer Science, and Information Architecture. 

'Pennington and Spiteri have pulled together a kaleidoscope of scenarios that explore the role and evolution of social tagging. From traditional library discovery systems and recommender systems to ontologies for dementia, effects on public policy to cognitive authority in Facebook communities, to Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and beyond. Tagging and linking—two  words that imply so much more than what they say—provide the core for this work. A valuable collection for anyone wanting to explore the possibilities of letting people have their say through the simple act of contributing their own words…#goodread #liked'
- Shawne D. Miksa, Associate Professor, University of North Texas

'Pennington, Spiteri, and their thoughtful contributing authors give us a thesaurus, a treasure chest of concepts, constructs, and tools for building new means of navigating constellations of people authoring, publishing, and looking for information. How do we find useful information? How do we bring information to the point of use? How do we determine veracity and cognitive authority of information? Who is now to link what with whom? Here the reader will find much to use and much to ponder.'
- Brian O’Connor, Professor, University of North Texas

Diane Rasmussen Pennington is a Lecturer in Information Science at the University of Strathclyde. Diane worked as a corporate IT professional and then a systems librarian before becoming a full-time academic in 2005. Diane’s PhD dissertation focused on social tagging practices of photojournalism professionals, and tagging has remained as a central focus of her research. Diane served as the Association for Information Science & Technology’s Social Media Manager from 2014-2016. 

Louise Spiteri is Associate Professor at the School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Louise’s areas of research interest focus on social tagging, user-generated metadata, discovery systems, classification systems, and taxonomies. Louise’s most recent research has focused on the creation of taxonomies for affect, based on an analysis of user-generated reviews and content in public library catalogue records.