Monday, June 9, 2008

Del.icio.us sites to behold

We're continuing to explore the world of Web 2.0 as part of my library's continuing education project. I just created my ourn Del.icio.us account to see what social bookmarking is all about. I downloaded the del.icio.us and tagging tools to my Internet Explorer toolbar. I then tagged several coffee-related web sites in keeping with one of my blog themes.

After exploring the site and seeting up an account, I can think of several ways in which this tool would be useful for librarians. First, del.icio.us can be used for computer and internet instruction classes. The instructor can set up an account and then be able to access the bookmarked sites he might want to use for the class. That way, he won't have to bookmark the sites for each computer/laptop he uses for any demonstrations. He can "transport" his "favorites" from Internet Explorer via a del.icio.us account.

Second, del.icio.us can be used as a reference tool. For example, instead of having to bookmark frequently used websites at each reference station, a del.icio.us account can be set up for all the librarians to share. Likewise, the specialist librarian can set up an account of his own to use at the reference desk or at a training class. Then again, if a library has a web page like ours does -- a "useful weblinks" section organized by subjects -- then that would be a more useful tool for librarians to use.

Namaste.

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