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Frequently Asked Questions
About MTagger
MTagger is a resource discovery tool. Its goal is to help users of the University of Michigan Library find items and collections they previously didn't know about. When you tag an item (a web page), you are helping other, future, users of library find that resource.
MTagger was launched in February 2008. Like many other social bookmarking tools, MTagger allows users to bookmark and tag web pages using language that makes sense to them. Tags and the items they describe can be searched and seen by other MTagger users. Unlike other tools, MTagger offers tag "collections" -- we enable users to searches for similarly tagged items within just the catalog, or just digital images. While tags themselves allow people to serendipitously find items in other collections, the "collections" highlights the library's broad resources.
What is a tag, anyway?
A tag is a label that you assign to a web page. They are keyword descriptors that help you and other users find similar library items. Most importantly, tags are chosen by you. You can assign as many tags to an item as you like and rename or delete the tags later. Like bookmarks or favorites in your web browser, tags let you collect and organize web pages you want to return to. Unlike bookmarks or favorites, tags are accessible from any computer with an internet connection. If you've ever typed keywords into Flickr or YouTube, labeled friends in a picture on Facebook, or used Gmail labels to organize your email, you've tagged something!
What's an item?
Essentially, an item is a webpage. There are many different types of items within the library. A few examples are books, catalog records, webpages, and images.
Who can tag?
If you are affiliated with the University of Michigan and have a uniqname, you can tag thing with MTagger. This includes people with guest accounts.
If you don't already have a University of Michigan uniqname, you can set up a friend account and add MTags. (Note that friend accounts do not give you any other access to University Library services that you would not have without logging in.)
Anyone can view tag clouds, click on tag, use the search functions in MTagger, and subscribe to RSS feeds -- no login is required for anything but adding tags.
What can be tagged?
Taggable items:
- Any MLibrary webpage
- Records in Mirlyn, the library catalog
- Digital image collections hosted by the library
- Selected electronic journals from the Scholarly Publishing Office
- Any webpage on the internet using the MTagger Browser Bookmark
Coming
- An item in Deep Blue, U-M's institutional repository
- A book in MBooks, the Google Digitization Project
The MTagger Browser Bookmark can be used to tag pages anywhere on the web.
Drag me to your Bookmarks Bar to quickly MTag any page on the web!
Who can see my tags?
Anyone can, whether or not they are affiliated with the University of Michigan. Tags are searchable from Internet search engines such as Google. If you tag items using MTagger, your uniqname and the web pages you tag will be visible to other users. MTagger stores and displays your uniqname, the URLs of pages you have tagged, and the tags you have applied to items. You do not need to tag anything to see other users' tags and items descriptions.
NOTE: As an option in "Manage Your Tags," you may choose to tag anonymously. This means that your items and tags will be displayed to other users, but your uniqname will be hidden. But tags are meant to be shared -- so join in!
