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Social Bookmarking uses client generated tags to organise your sites of interest.
Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts).
Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.In the past few weeks, weíve already explored a few sites - Flickr and LibraryThing to name two - that allow users to take advantage of tagging.
This week we want to also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Delicious Delicious is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.
Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you.
You can think of it as peering into another user's filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.
- Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us
- Social Bookmarking in Plain English: Another Commoncraft Youtube video which explains Del.icio.us in user friendly terms.
- YPRL Bookmarks: Yarra Plenty Regional Libraries Delicious account.
- Linking for Learning
Create an account (I know, not another one!) and take a look around Delicious. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference? Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance, for in the classroom? Or is it just an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed anywhere online?
