Thing 11 - tagging and Del.icio.us

I set up a Furl account 4 or 5 years ago and then never kept it up. I’ll see if I can get organized now with Del.icio.us.

I see two very useful applications for this site for me personally. First, I could have access to my bookmarks wherever I am. I often find sites at home that I bookmark, but then I also have to email myself a URL and bookmark it at school also. Now I could cut out one of those steps. It also would be great since I’ve lost all my bookmarks at school at least twice this year when the computer was re-imaged. I have an export file on my flash drive now of most of my bookmarks. Second, I wouldn’t have to decide which folder a site should go in, since I can add all kinds of tags so it can be found in multiple ways. What library site wouldn’t contain information in more than one area?

I also can see how great it would be for research or to create a reading list with a group of people. Because you search the tags that everyone has assigned, you are magnifying your researchers exponentially. Of course, the podcast made a good point in knowing the source and using bookmarks from someone you respect.

There were some interesting uses of social bookmarking by the libraries. I was surprised that the San Mateo Public Library used the Dewey system for tags. I would have thought it would be counterproductive for patrons young enough to be using Del.icio.us. I also noticed that Menasha’s Library did not bookmark Wikipedia under their encyclopedia tag. ;-) I’m glad that Web 2.0 tools are making it easier to catalog websites. Instead of arduously adding them to the catalog, a librarian can simply notify users of their webpage of their Del.icio.us account so they could look there. Of course, I will have to see if our filters at school block Del.icio.us as a social networking site. Then, of course, that wouldn’t work at all.