From the Goddard Space Flight Center , CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

As you may have seen in our recent Sneak Peek post, we’ve been working on new ways to allow you to browse subject headings in Open Library. Edward’s just built a new subject search index too, so you’ll be able to do a keyword search for any/all subject headings that mention that word.

Testing things and looking around, I wondered about comparison between two different systems of classification: Library of Congress Subject Headings (or Authorities) and Flickr tags.

I searched for “space flight” subjects on Open Library and found 57 results. Here are the first twenty:

• Space flight
• Space flight to the moon
• Manned space flight
• Space flight in fiction
• Space flight to Mars
• Orbital transfer (Space flight)
• Space flight to the moon in fiction
• Psychological aspects of Space flight
• Space Flight
• Space flight training
• Extravehicular activity (Manned space flight)
• Orbital rendezvous (Space flight)
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Space flight in literature
• Space flight to Jupiter
• George C. Marshall Space Flight Center
• Effect of space flight on
• Physiological aspects of Space flight
• Space flight to Venus
• Manned space flight in fiction

There’s a new page for every subject:

And here are 20 things Open Library and Flickr think are related:

It’s interesting that one system works with plurals, the other singular. Makes sense perhaps because perhaps a library classification is designed to collect things together, whereas tagging could be about describing the thing that’s in front of you. Collections under a certain tag on Flickr are most often emergent, instead of predetermined (although they can be that as well). Curious also the contrast between literary and visual classifications, and the distinct lack of overlap.

The other thing is librarians’ marvellous use of (context), like Orbital transfer (Space flight). It’s incredibly useful when all at once you have to describe or comprehend something in brief. Apart from our need to classify ever more deeply, has the literal size of analog catalogs helped evolve such specificity?

Wonderful stuff.