How to tag

There are several ways to tag a page. The MTagger logo, and "Tag this page" appear in both the top and bottom of any MLibrary page. Clicking "Tag this page" will open the MTagger popup window: The tagging window is where you can add or remove tags for an item. Add new tags by typing them into the field marked "Tag(s)". Enter as many tags as you like, each separated by a comma. Using multiple words between commas will result in a single tag. For example, entering 'My research-like Project, classes, my_Resources' into the Tag(s) field will result in three separate tags: 'My research-like Project', 'classes', and 'my_Resources'. If you've previously tagged the item, your tags and other users' tags will be displayed just below the Tag(s) field. Remove tags directly from this window by clicking "[untag]" next to the tag you wish to delete from the item. If you choose, enter an optional personal description and/or title for the item that will help you remember it.

Finding items

Tags are great for organizing and finding personal data, but they go even further when someone else posts related content using the same tags. You begin building a collaborative repository of related information.

Here's what you can do...

• Recent tags: http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags
• Recent tags that start with the letter 'E': http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags?q=E
• Recent tagged items: http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/items
• Everything tagged 'mlibrary': http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags/view/mlibrary
• Only items in Mirlyn tagged 'library': http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags/find?tag=library&collection=mirlyn
• The user ebidel's tags & items: http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags/find/ebidel
• ebidel's items tagged 'library': http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags/find/ebidel/library
• All tagged items in the mlibrary collection: http://mirlyn.web.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/tags/find?collection=mlibrary

Alternatively, you may wish to use the search box at the top of each page to search for tags, items, users, and descriptions. You can search for items that have all or any of the words you enter by clicking the "and" or "or" buttons below the search box. If you use the "and" or "or" search, you must put each tag you are searching in quotation marks. For example, this search
         "books" "databases"
with the "and" button selected will find all pages tagged with both the tag books and the tag databases (sample AND search). On the other hand, the same search with the "or" button selected will find all pages tagged with either books or databases (sample OR search). Generally, an "AND" search will bring back fewer results than an "OR" search because, in an "AND" search, all tags must be applied to the page for it to be shown in the results list.

Tagging practices

• Use simple tags
  You want your tags to be useful to you and other users. In general, keep your tags concise and meaningful. If you use multi-word tags, keep them short. Don't try to represent everything in a single tag. Tagging an item with "screwball comedy" is a lot easier to manage (and remember) than a tag like "funny jokes in movies".
• Use tags that make sense to you
  Create tags that are concise, descriptive, meaningful, and that you can easily remember and find later. Ask yourself: will I still remember this tag when I come back to MTagger?
• Be consistent
  When tagging an item in the MTagger popup window, the tags you've used as well as the tags others will be displayed for that item. If you see that someone else is using a tag that matches your interest, click their tag to add it to your list. If someone else tagged the item "books", don't tag the item "book". This will help you and other users find similar resources later on.

Subscribing to Alerts

All displays in MTagger (items with a certain tag, everything tagged by a user, etc.) come with RSS Feeds. For a brief explanation of RSS, please see the RSS tutorial. When you see the RSS icon (), click the link to view/add the feed to your favorite aggregator.

From then on, whenever a new item falls into the category you wanted (for example, a new item has been tagged "economics" or user abcdefgh has tagged something new), your RSS reader or aggregator will let you know.

Sample RSS links (right-click icon to copy RSS feed URL, or click the link to be taken to the feed):

• Subscribe to recently tagged items
• Subscribe to items tagged "library"

University Library, University of Michigan
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Last Update: 12:18 AM EST on Monday, February 05, 2007

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