Folksonomies are flexible and self-moderating, but when combined with a more traditional hierarchical taxonomy they may be able to offer the personal, interactive and productive search experience that people are looking for in an online catalog. Next generation interfaces by vendors such as Innovative Interfaces are betting on just this. Their new browser, Encore, allows users to search and add tags to the OPAC.
Once we have integrated a folksonomy into the online catalog, an exciting opportunity arises. Works would be described both by the taxonomic Library of Congress Subject Headings, but also by the folksonomic tag cloud. If we could benchmark the h index, to determine at what h value a tag cloud would sufficiently describe the work, then we could use the h index to create a conversation between the folksonomy and the taxonomy.
