Tagging resources is worth the effort.

Bruce Dunning
Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157
edited November 2024 in English Forum

For years I debated the value of tagging my resources. I knew that it would be a lot of work and wasn't sure it was worth the effort. I finally decided to take this on as a project and over the past number of weeks I have tagged all of my resources (currently close to 8,000).

Now that I have completed this project I am very pleased with the results as this makes my library even more usable. I realize that tagging isn't a good fit for everyone but perhaps my encouragement may help some to undertake this valuable project.

Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

Comments

  • Paul-C
    Paul-C Member Posts: 1,896 ✭✭✭

    Glad this worked out for you. What types of tags were you using, Bruce?

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    Paul, I took a long time to determine the best categories to use and found many different threads on the forum that made suggestions. I adopted some of them and changed others to suit me. This is still a work in progress but currently here is what I am using.

    8171.My Tagging System for Logos.docx

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Paul-C
    Paul-C Member Posts: 1,896 ✭✭✭

    This looks really comprehensive. Thanks for sharing it Bruce. Tagging is something I'm going to do more of, and this will be a big help. [Y]

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    Glad I could be of some help. It is primarily a re-work of many things I have learned from others on the forums.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    It is so easy not to really understand what is in our libraries. Tagging can really help one become more familiar with our books.

    I just spent much of yesterday going through my entire library again and looking at each resource to prioritize what books I would really like to read by assigning appropriate tags to them. This is sort of like placing them on a shelf that serves as a reminder so that they don't become forgotten.

    I'm now a big believer in tagging.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Francis
    Francis Member Posts: 3,901 ✭✭✭

    Although I have not tagged much as of late, I found it useful to indicate content more precisely than the book description. Tagging allows us to do what mere word searches cannot do and topics search is not up to par with.

  • David Kirk Davis
    David Kirk Davis Member Posts: 169 ✭✭

    Can you create tags yoga the ipad and secondcan will the tags show up on an ipad search? 

  • Paul-C
    Paul-C Member Posts: 1,896 ✭✭✭

    Can you create tags yoga the ipad and secondcan will the tags show up on an ipad search? 

    David, if you're asking whether you can create tags on the iPad, I don't think you can right now.

    However, Logos 5 created tags do sync across to iOS devices and can be used in searches on iPads, etc.

  • Milford Charles Murray
    Milford Charles Murray Member Posts: 5,004 ✭✭✭

    Peace, Bruce!              *smile*                I'm grateful to you for sharing your "labour of love," re. the tagging of one's library books!

                    My mind is too tired tonight to analyze whether how you work and tag will work for me.  I've downloaded your .docx file; and now I have the opportunity to decide if it will work for me.

                        I'm a little surprised at how our minds do work.  I have about the same number of books as you; and probably need to do some tagging and adapting for more effective use of my resources.

    Philippians 4:  4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand..........

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    here is what I am using

    This is great, (for those unaware) through community tags I can use many of the these tag filters in my library to sort with, even without previously tagging ANY of my books. Thanks for this contribution.

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yeah, I took the time to do that to my entire Library at one point, but I've since gotten so far behind in tagging all my new resources when they come in (I've now got 21,460 resources, 2,212 of which have no tagging at all; and many have only minimal tagging, e.g., the date I acquired them -- I try to tag them all with a tag of the format "Bought: YYYYMMDD" as soon as I download them. But 4,195 of my resources don't have a Bought tag yet.)

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    here is what I am using

    This is great, (for those unaware) through community tags I can use many of the these tag filters in my library to sort with, even without previously tagging ANY of my books. Thanks for this contribution.

    Surprisingly, I have actually been quite disciplined to continue to tag all my new resources as well as I have updated my tagging system. It is in no way perfect but a lot more complete than what I originally posted in this thread. Here is my latest version - 7077.My Tagging System for Logos.docx

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    Sweet thanks for the update. So out of curiosity, its only after 5 people tag a book similarly that it becomes a standardized community tag correct? I'm just weighing the options of tagging my resources myself or just relying on the community tags. I ran several of yours as a filter and they all generated some pretty nice collections in my library, so I don't know if its worth it, unless I can easily see somehow which of my resources have no tags.

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    Sweet thanks for the update.

    You are welcome.

    So out of curiosity, its only after 5 people tag a book similarly that it becomes a standardized community tag correct?

    Yes, I believe that is the case.

    I'm just weighing the options of tagging my resources myself or just relying on the community tags. I ran several of yours as a filter and they all generated some pretty nice collections in my library, so I don't know if its worth it, unless I can easily see somehow which of my resources have no tags.

    I would say that there are some shortcuts like you mention but nothing replaces tagging them yourself. Taking time to tag each book helped me get to know my library so that I at least have looked over each resource and made my assessment of the tags that I would like to apply. It is a lot of work but I think that it is worth it.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • RyanB
    RyanB Member Posts: 686 ✭✭✭

    So out of curiosity, its only after 5 people tag a book similarly that it becomes a standardized community tag correct?

    Yes, I believe that is the case.

    Hi all, I was just curious does that mean that if 5 people tag a book "To Read" or "Don't Use" or "Bad Theology" for their libraries, than those same tags will show up in my library as well?

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    Ryan B said:

    Hi all, I was just curious does that mean that if 5 people tag a book "To Read" or "Don't Use" or "Bad Theology" for their libraries, than those same tags will show up in my library as well?

    Community Tagging shows up in the library view. Of course you can resort the order or even remove it from the list but I've taken a shot of mine. So, yes, they would show up in our libraries. Logos has designed it so that the most common would populate here.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • RyanB
    RyanB Member Posts: 686 ✭✭✭

    Ahhh okay [I]

    I was confusing "My Tags" with "Community Tags."  Thanks for the clarification Bruce.

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    Taking time to tag each book helped me get to know my library

    Yes I definitely see the value of this. I may start specifically with my PBs because I'd imagine those will not have any community tags already. Then depending on the payoff of the initial effort, I will possibly head down the long road of tagging the rest. Thanks for the motivation :-)

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,157

    I may start specifically with my PBs because I'd imagine those will not have any community tags already.

    You are correct. You will not find any Community Tags on personal books.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God