Library trends
Summer 2007/08
Periodically librarians take a look at
new library technologies and how libraries around the world
are using or adapting them to add new services or
enhance existing services for their customers.
Featured technology: del.icio.us, a Web 2.0 tool
Web 2.0
Many of you may be familiar with the term Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 is about online collaboration, participation,
social interaction and information sharing between
users. Prior to Web 2.0 the creator of a website or
page controlled the content – users might be able
to feedback via email but could not alter or add to
the page.
Web 2.0 technologies allow users to create content
together. Web 2.0 tools include such things as
blogs, wikis, MySpace, flickr (photo-sharing), You
Tube, Bebo and a host of other applications.
del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking tool. It’s a way
of sharing websites you’ve found on a particular
topic with other people who also have an interest
in that topic. Go to the del.icio.us homepage
to learn more about this tool.
What makes saving something to del.icio.us
different to saving it to your favourites?
When you save to del.icio.us you create one or
more tags (like a keyword) to describe the site
you’re saving.
This means that you and other people in the
del.icio.us community can search for a particular
topic and find the site you saved plus sites other
people have saved on the same topic.
You can also see how many other people have
saved the same site as you.
del.icio.us and libraries
This is obviously quite a cool thing for a library to do.
Being able to access topics in del.icio.us along with
the library's books, magazines and online
resources means the pool of information available to
you, the library customer, is so much bigger.
Hundreds of libraries around the world are using
del.icio.us.
A couple of examples
If you’d like to have a play with del.icio.us and would like some help to get started ask the staff at the
Information Services desk next time you’re in the
library. |
