Tag Library

Tags are the main organizational metaphor in citeKeeper. A tag is simply a word or short phrase that you associate with a quote or snippet. For example, "contracts" or "standard of review". Tags should be concise and descriptive.

The tag library is the collection of every quote that you have tagged. Tags are displayed differently in the library depending on how many times they have been used. Tags that have been used the most are larger, while the tags have been used the least are the smallest.

Searching by Tag

Tags make it easy to find what you are looking for. For example, let's say you are searching for authority on the use of extrinsic evidence to define terms in a fully integrated contract. Chances are the tag cloud contains a number of tags relevant to your search: contracts, interpretation, integrated, and extrinsic evidence are all likely.

It is usually best to start by clicking the most general tag. This tag will frequently be the most used, and therefore the biggest. In our example, you would click on "contracts." You will then be presented with a list of all quotes that have been tagged with "contracts," as well as a smaller tag cloud containing all the tags for those quotes. If you select another tag, for example "interpretation," you will be presented with those quotes that have been tagged with both "contracts" and "interpretation," as well as an even smaller tag cloud containing all the tags for this smaller list of quotes. You can keep selecting more tags to narrow your search until you find what you are looking for.

Other Ways to Search the Tag Library

The tag library can be searched in other ways as well. For example, you can search for quotes containing a certain word or phrase. You can also limit the tags you search to your library, your firm's library, or the entire citeKeeper database.

Choose Your Tags Wisely

As you can see, the point of tagging quotes is to make them easy to find later. Keep this in mind when choosing your tags. Where possible, include tags at several levels of generality. In our example above, tags ranged from the general idea of "contracts" to the specific idea of "extrinsic evidence." Also, try not to create a new tag for a concept that already has a tag-- if it is clear that "contracts" is the most common tag for contracts issue, don't create a "contract law" tag for the same topic. The auto-complete feature will give you some idea as to what tags are already being used.

Tags are visible to everyone. When you look at a quote, you can see everything it has been tagged with. Your tags are highlighted in green; all other tags have a white background.

Privacy

Tags are not private. Anyone can see the tags you enter, either in the tag library (by viewing all tags) or in the autocomplete results. Attorneys should be careful to pick tags that do not reveal any confidential or privileged information. Where privacy is needed, attorneys should use projects.