One of the questions that comes up regularly is what is the difference between THINGS and COLLECTIONS.  On the main menu of iTaggit the user has several menu options including All My Things and My Collections.

Think of the list view of All My Things as a 'master list' of all of the items that you have loaded in the system that are YOURS.  When you add an item it automatically goes into the All My Things list.  Whether you add an item individually, copy an item from someone else's public collection, or import an item from Excel or Amazon, they always go into the All My Things area.

Items can THEN be organized into collections.  An item can be put into multiple collections if that is what you desire (only one copy of the item will be in the system).  For example, I may have a first edition book that is signed from Ray Bradbury.  Let's say that I have three collections - a FICTION BOOK COLLECTION, a FIRST EDITION BOOK COLLECTION, and a SIGNED BOOK COLLECTION.  I can add the Ray Bradbury book into any of these or all of them.  It's up to me. 

Why would I do this you ask (great question, by the way).  I may want to keep the FICTION BOOK COLLECTION private as it's only for my use but I want to share my FIRST EDITION BOOK COLLECTION.  This allows me to keep separate collections for different purposes without having to make multiple copies of the item.

Remember that collections can be Private, Shared Private (you designate who has access), or Public.

All of the collections that you own are listed in the My Collections area.