Contextual metadata: faceted schemas in virtual library communities

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.

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.

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, subject/topic, setting, and genre. Faceted structure to tags enables users to choose the context of the tag to the novel.

This research is relevant in the world of social networking sites, online communities, or any other such system where users generate descriptive metadata. Examination of such metadata can reveal facets, which can guide the architect/librarian in the design of a versatile architecture.

This research resulted in a manifold design for a public‐library‐based online community that allowed for the full expression of users' information needs. This research introduces a faceted structure to current approaches for user‐generated metadata, adding versatility to search terms.