I had a look and done some searches on del.icio.us and found it very easy to use and fun to read. It is just like bookmarks/favorites but you can share it with anyone in anywhere. I think it can be used as a function of Intranet for staff with 'common interest' or as a quick finder for reference tools/phone no/policies etc.. It can also be used as Internet links for reference/library services and facilities queries for staff and clients. One thing I like (and could be a problem) is that you can use any tag name as the subject heading. It is more user friendly and easier to search for clients and some staff. The RSS Feed is great too as I get notified when there is a new update. They works very well together.
There is a lot of potential of using this tool in libraries. The question is how are we going to agree on the tag names (except using the LCSH)? We have been quite rigid in how we set up our records and indexing and the bookmarking will probably need to set up with 'formal' and informal' tag names. Another issue of using bookmarking is the number of tag that you can set up. It can be quite frustrating when there are a lot of tag names to go through and still cannot find what you want! The approach of bookmarking from Cleveland Library and Sutherland Library are very different. Cleveland Library uses a traditional library approach while Sutherland Library gives you pages of tag names to choose. I think I would prefer something in between.
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It's a good question - how will we agree on tags ... but perhaps the other question we need to ask is 'do we need to agree'? I imagine for some purposes eg. using a single account for a team we would need to but since you can always go back and add / edit tags perhaps it's flexible enough to be 'free range'? The best examples I have seen in catalogues have both LCSH headings and tags.
Mylee (PLS)
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