Week 6 - Thing 13

I started a del.icio.us account last year because we were examining so many valuable links that I wanted a place to keep them all. A del.icio.us account comes in handy when I am accessing several computers because it keeps all the links in one central location without losing the links when I am on another computer. When I first started adding pages to my account, I did not use tagging or see the use for it. However, reading about tagging in the Shelley text has helped me to see the advantages of tagging. Tagging is an easy way of allowing users to locate information through common terms. Although there are not standard subject terms used by this system, it is fairly logical that the user will be able to find useful sites by searching any term.

I think that a social bookmarking site is an easy way to bookmark pages, but I also think that this can be used as a valuable research tool. Users can easily search for any term to locate potential information sources. Also, libraries can create del.icio.us pages that can assist patrons in finding reliable sites that can assist them in finding the information that is needed. One nice thing is that folders can be created to separate pages into folders for easy access. Libraries can provide a link to their del.icio.us page to refer users to a central location for many useful web pages. I think that social bookmarking is something that will be on the rise in the coming years and it is something that libraries can use to reach out to patrons. With so many patrons using the Internet rather than libraries, this is a way for libraries to help those patrons locate safe, reliable sites.