The Biblioscape categories module is designed to do two things. First, it can be used to tag references, notes, tasks, and charts. Tagging is very easy to understand. It is the equivalent of writing a keyword on a sticker and putting the sticker on your belongings. We have all done this when moving. The second use of the categories module is to build topic maps. This is a new concept to most users. It is only valuable to a small number of users who want to do knowledge management in Biblioscape. We will talk about this part in another chapter.
According to the definition at wikipedia, "A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information. This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or search." In Biblioscape, the "piece of information" could be a reference, note, task, or chart. The "keyword or term" is represented by categories that is shown on the search pane. The easiest way to assign it is to drag selected records (could be references, notes, etc.) to a category on the right.
Tagging became popular in web 2.0 sites like del.icio.us and Flickr. Del.icio.us allows users to associate tags with a bookmark as a way to classify your bookmarks. As this became popular, desktop programs like FireFox also let users add tags to a bookmark. At the Flickr site, users can add tags to the photos you upload. This helps users to find their photos by searching and browsing. The implementation of tagging in Biblioscape inherited the ease of use from the earlier systems, and it also added extra features to make it more flexible.
| • | Controlled vocabulary: When used in a multi-user environment, a list of categories are placed in a folder by the administrator. Users can use the controlled vocabulary to tag records. |
| • | Taxonomy: Biblioscape allows users to organize categories in a tree structure. The parent child relationship can be used to build both scientific taxonomies and folk taxonomies. |
| • | Colored category: Users can assign a color to a category. All the records tagged by that category will also be marked by the same color. |
| • | Flexible searching: With a parent child relationship, users can click a parent category and choose to retrieve all records tagged by the parent plus child categories. |