Better Late than Never - Week 5

So, this week has been all about social bookmarking and tagging through the deliciously named medium Delicious. Mmmmmm, tasty! I was quite excited about the potentials of using Delicious as it's one of those things I've heard of but never really understood what it was or how it would help me. I have to say, I'm not convinced I've progressed much further yet...

Don't get me wrong, it's quite a good way to organise your bookmarks, and I like the "bookmarklet" (I found it really useful that it reminds you to think about why you're bookmarking a site and how you want to find it again), but the way I've used it so far is not unlike having different folders in your "Favourites" sidebar, although admittedly a lot quicker! The other big advantage (and one not to be underestimated) is that it means you can access your personal bookmarks on any computer with internet access, and that's definitely worthwhile.

I didn't really find the Delicious site itself particularly intuitive, which irritated me probably more than it should have. I don't like having to go back and read the instructions just because I was at a complete loss as to what it was all meant to do! Still, after some resentful muttering I did get to grips with the site for long enough to import my existing bookmarks into Delicious, add some new ones, and do some tagging. I think I can see the general benefits in theory, but in practice I just really don't want to spend as much time on the Web as would make it worthwhile! In a library-specific context though, I can see that tagging could be very useful for both prescribed reading lists and for suggested reading around topics (which would lend itself to a more "social" approach as individuals added more items of interest under a variety of tags), so maybe I am coming round to understanding the purpose of Delicious!




I then continued bravely into the world of networking. I networked with Nuffield College Library and the Education Library (both very handy given that I'm doing a part time Master's in the social sciences) and I'm beginning to see the wider possibilities of Delicious library use; there's a lot of great resources bookmarked there! I also added some of my colleagues (hello!), my only gripe being that trying to add specific people is pretty tricky if you don't know what their login name is! I guess I'm too used to finding people on facebook and assumed that this would be similar - it's not!