Colleen’s Social Software Blog - LIS 757

I must admit I have not been as diligent in my del.icio.us contributions as I would like. I am frustrated by the need to first install the related toolbar.  Though easily accessible on my home PC, at work I make use of any number of computers throughout the day.  Though it’s easy enough to tag sites from home or the dedicated PC in my office, I always seem to happen across interesting and relevant sites when I’m at any computer but these two.

All of this week’s recommended tools seem to offer the same basic functionality as del.icio.us with a few little exceptions.  I like that blinklist allows you to keep your list private and that the button is kept in your favourites.  They also make it pretty easy to incorporate your existing favourites or del.icio.us links.  I wish I’d know about CiteULike a little earlier in the program.  I can see making use of it while researching papers.   I was also impressed by the quantity and diversity of linked journals.  Connotea also seems to offer the same level of functionality however I’m curious as to why it’s targeted so specifically at researchers and scientists.

I checked out the examples of libraries using del.icio.us and other forms of tagging and I’m not sure I’m clear on the benefits.  Are these links intended solely for staff, the public, or both?  While I can see some of the benefits to library staff, these sites contain no organization (other than the tag cloud) and seem to cover a wide variety of unrelated topics.  If Porter’s delicious lesson is correct, library staff are tagging for their own benefit – even if that benefit may be work related.  While library users can certainly benefit from a search of the whole of del.icio.us, I’m a little fuzzy on how they could benefit from access to these small collections of seemingly random tagged links.