Original inquiry and summary posted by
Sarah Knight, Watercare Services
Ltd, on July 20, 2000
The official publication of the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS'
SUBJECT HEADINGS is on our "ready reference" shelf, despite the fact that
the 22nd edition, published in 1999 fills up over 6,500 pages, across
5 volumes, and is about 38cm across!
I cannot imagine anyone on earth who would find such a bulky array
of subject headings to be useful when arranging bookmarks.
If you are only focusing on specific disciplines, such as Education,
Psychology or Sociology, then you might be able to work with the specialized
subject thesauri that are widely available for such discipline specific
databases as ERIC for Education, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS or SOCIOLOGICAL
ABSTRACTS.
I have always found it very difficult to create any categorization
system from scratch, that grows with whatever personal collection that
I am trying to cope with.
For instance, when organizing the historical data containing the
cost basis, and current stock market info, for the different companies
I have invested in over the years, I had separate categories for Electric
utilities, Gas utilities, combination Electric+Gas utilities, and then
another category for Water utilities.
But where do you put a firm like Vivendi, which is almost a conglomerate
of Water, Electric, Cable and Internet services, all rolled into one?
And they are in the process of acquiring Seagrams of Canada, for its investments
in the film & music regions of the entertainment industry (not to
mention Seagram's liquor manufacturing & distribution divisions).
The only one who can answer that, is you, since you are the one who
will be accessing those bookmarks, files, or whatever.
Sadly, there is no holy grail for categorizing stuff, in just the
right way, that will satisfy everybody.
I am sorry if my last paragraph seems flippant, but without knowing
the range, depth, and variety of items that are already in your bookmark
collection, it would be difficult to turn to any one thesauri for assistance.
FOR INSTANCE, in my bookmarks, I have some links to trade associations
(libraries, business, marketing, education), as well as certain database
vendors, certain producers of economic statistics, links to selected library
OPACs [online public access catalogs], as well as all sorts of personal
non-work related links (my bank accounts, credit cards, fun things).
And then there are the various news services & stock quote systems
that I have on hand (which can be used both for reference queries, and
my own personal investments). And there are also general reference sources
(online phone books, links to Federal agencies which have confusing acronyms
or URLs). So there can be lots of overlap between different categories
in there.
Generally, I choose not to categorize my bookmarks. Instead, I add
a brief annotation that shows up on the screen, or I rename many of the
bookmark entry. It is amazing, how many personal, library and nonprofit
web pages have nothing meaningful inside the <title> fields, such
as "library" or "web page"!!
GOOD LUCK in getting a system in place that you and your colleagues
will be able to use seamlessly.
It depends on your field of interest whether to use
a thesaurus or a subject headings. The first would be very useful if you
are in specific field (like medicine, law, engineering etc which already
have a well done thesauri) but the second one would be preferable if your
bookmarks are of general interest. I use Yahoo's categories.
I have also made up my own subject headings for bookmarked
favorites - I do not have access to a standard subject heading list. This
has worked well since the simple headings reflect the company's interests.
I have rearranged some them as time passes, but have not felt that that
is a major problem.
I do keep a list of the headings with a few cross refs and scope notes
as appropriate.
I also periodically back up my favorites onto our network in case my hard
drive goes - I especially do so if I have gone in to reorganize.
I run a library automation
company and saw your posting to the business librarian listserv.
What software are you using to catalog favorites? We are in the process
of developing such a database catalog for our customers using our base
product, Lotus Notes. Would you share with me any ideas you have on any
other fields that you would find useful in cataloging sites. The fields
we have come up with so far are:
-- date
added
-- subject(s) (unlimited)
-- person requesting site
-- title of site
-- links to other similar sites
-- notes on site
-- librarian notes on site
-- subsidiary links
