Tuesday Thingers: Tagging

This week's topic for the Tuesday Thingers group is about using tags in your Library Thing library. Wendi asks:

Do you tag? If so, do you tag for your own purposes (make lists, sort, clouds, etc)? Do you tag to help classify a book (historical fiction, self-help, sci-fi, mystery, etc)? What is the most helpful thing for you about tagging?

First of all, about that connection between tags and Early Reviewer books ("the more you tag your books, the more likely you are to snag a similar Early Reviewer book"). Well, I had a similar theory when I first signed up with the Early Reviewers program – I figured if I could just hit on the right system of tagging, or the right number of tags, it would help me get more of the books I was interested in. And I still believe that tags play a part in the sacred "algorithm" (well, I think the people in charge say they do, anyway), but several of the books I've gotten have been from genres that don't really "fit" with my library, if you're just judging by my tags. And I've also noticed that people who use few or no tags for their collections still seem to receive their share of ER books. So I think tags are probably a help, but many other things figure in the overall decision.

But I do use tags. Lots of tags. Over four hundred different tags. Mostly I use broad classifications like "American literature" or "Mysteries" or "Science Fiction." But I use smaller and more focused groupings, too – like "Prehistory," "Poirot," and "Pop-up Books." I'm pretty sure every book in my LT library has at least one tag attached to it, and most have more than one. I like tagging because it allows me to sort my books by category if I want to do that, but also because I'm able to tell at a glance how many books of various genres I have in my collection – and anyone looking at my library can see that, too. And that sort of serves as my bookish introduction to the rest of the LT world.

Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.