Research Question
What is the best way to tag notes to show relationship between Ideas and to aid recall?
Approach
I explored tags and tagging by reading papers, blog posts, and watching YouTube videos.
Spotlight
“Tagging and multiple classification seems like a good idea to users; however, when they have to choose how to store and retrieve personal items they prefer folders and single classification” (Bergman et al., 2013, p. 6)
Link to original
“However, the improved memory of the content suggests that tagging encourages encoding information from multiple perspectives and deeper semantic processing of the content.” (Gao, 2011, p. 851)
Link to original
Conclusions
- While tags are used in topical and non-topical situations, problem arises when we have Umbrella Tags—terms that are considered both topical and non-topical due their usage in multiple specialized contexts. (Basile et al., 2015)
- Tags require more effort during retrieval and organization processes, but allow for better retention of the content. (Bergman et al., 2013; Gao, 2011; Hwang, 2019)
- Semantic links are best to show relationships between ideas.
- Although in the context of book search, controlled vocabularies (CVs) and unique tags offer greater relevance when searching. Hence, they are preferred over ordinary tags. (Bogers & Petras, 2017)
- Tagging should be used to “provide extra information in addition to categorization” due to the semantic processing effort it requires—rather than act as a substitute to categorization. (Gao, 2011)
References
Basile, V., Peroni, S., Tamburini, F., & Vitali, F. (2015). Topical tags vs non-topical tags: Towards a bipartite classification? Journal of Information Science, 41(4), 486–505. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551515585283
Bergman, O., Gradovitch, N., Bar‐Ilan, J., & Beyth‐Marom, R. (2013). Tagging personal information: A contrast between attitudes and behavior. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.14505001029
Bogers, T., & Petras, V. (2017). Supporting Book Search: A Comprehensive Comparison of Tags vs. Controlled Vocabulary Metadata. Data and Information Management, 1(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1515/dim-2017-0004
Gao, Q. (2011). An Empirical Study of Tagging for Personal Information Organization: Performance, Workload, Memory, and Consistency. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 27(9), 821–863. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2011.555309
Hwang, H. (2019, January 21). Context in Learning, Organizing and Sharing Information. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Context-in-Learning%2C-Organizing-and-Sharing-Hwang/bb1a1ea2a505c6e0bc7a288f10e9432d0066e8f9