Delicious is just that!

I started using delicious earlier this year when I was asked to teach a class here on social bookmarking and RSS. I'd heard of it before but had never taken the time to explore what it could do. I found I not only really liked the way you can keep your bookmarks with you, but also the opportunity to explore the bookmarks of others who share your interests. I tagged a few blogs that I read frequently via RSS and then explored other users who had also tagged them. Some really interesting discoveries came out of that.

I think the idea of tagging bookmarks makes sense, epecially if your collection grows beyond what one finds in a browser favorites file. It makes searching much easier, though you have to really think how you tag things. You can't call everything 'work' and then expect to immediately locate an article from 6 months ago. You have to really think what an article means to you and how you might search in the future. Of course, by not seeing everything as nested files right in front of you, if you haven't been dilligent about tagging you could misplace something.

I've already covered how I uncovered some new sites, including Esquire's Best Bar list which I found as a popular bookmark one day as I browsed. A link a found via another's tags was Alex Reisner's Road Trip '06 photo blog - really a beautiful site.

The biggest advantages?

• It's portable, allowing you to access sites from wherever you are without having to remember addresses.
• It loads fast so there isn't a wait
• It's popular so there's lots to explore

The biggest weaknesses?

• I'm so used to relying on my favorites and browser-based bookmarks that I forget to use it. I don't know how many times I have racked my brain for a website address when I could have just tagged it in delicious and been done with it.
  
• I'm not all that consistent with my tagging. I don't have too many bookmarks yet, but I worry that my lack of organization will bite me in the ass some day.
  

I do think I can use this at work. We often have to move from computer to computer for work or reference duty. Delicious would solve the issue of different machines. We also plan to continue to teach a class on the topic so the incentive is there to explore further. I just have to remember that it's there!

23 Things

Well, I'm getting a late start on this, but I want to make it before the deadline so here goes. My blog here has sat dormant since my web 2.0 class at SLA 2008 in Seattle. I thought this would be a good time to revive the blog to take advantage of what I've learned so far.

In setting up this blog, we used the suggestions of the instructors in choosing a provider. I have several friends who use blogger had find it quite user friendly. At work we use Typepad for our blogs (including the oh-so creatively named InfoCentral Blog which I help to write). Blogger seems more user-friendly with one row of tools on the bar instead of separate windows to upload images. So far it's been fairly easy going in Blogger. We'll see how it goes.

The Librarian (1946)

Module 2

Wikis aren't as scary as they look. I think we can do a lot of collaboration with them at work. It's a tool we need to explore. I would love to see SLA Illinois do a virtual tour of different area libraries like the DC chapter has done.

Our library already has a Facebook page (and I think a MySpace), but I don't know that it's being used all that effectively. We could do a lot more with the books and reports that we come across to help our memebers for one. I love that you can add twitter to Facebook.

I need to talk with Frederick, the manager of our virtual library, to see how we can speed up getting all this social networking up on our site.

Reflection on Morning Modules at SLA

This morning's sessions covered blogging, twitter, RSS and del.icio.us. While we use blogging extensively and teach RSS, twitter was something new for me. I was happy to start following a few twitters here at SLA. It's something we could set up in the library but I'm not sure if staff would twit or not - and who would read? Would we open it to members? Do they really want to know if we are enjoying our day? Also there's the question of self-censoring to fit the work environment. Maybe it's better for friends and colleagues that I want to develop a more personal relationship with.

I find one of the best uses of del.icio.us is to find new blogs and articles to link to based on what others who share my interests have saved. I've come across a few great new links that way.