Week 8: Social Bookmarking and Library 2.0

Social Bookmarking

I really liked delicious, I've used tagging before but I hadn't come across this version of social bookmarking. I thought it was great for a couple of reasons:

1. Being able to take bookmarks with you
2. Seeing what other people have bookmarked
3. Seeing the comments about what has been bookmarked and being able to add your own.

I can see how this tool could have the potential for research, as it would allow people looking at the same topic and easy way to compare resources. The challenge I think, as always with easy access to information we have these days, is still data overload. Although I'm really impressed with the way that Delicious helps to control this by tagging bookmarks, if a lot of people are creating these bookmarked pages, then it still adds up to a lot of information very quickly.

Library 2.0

One of the most interesting things that I learnt about Library 2.0 was the fact that it is in "perpetual beta", i.e. it's undergoing constant change. Anything that we create or utilise is very quickly going to become outdated. I knew that already of course, and having only worked in the library for the last three years, I'd taken it for granted without really thinking deeply about what it means. How can we take advantage of this technology in a meaningful and useful way, without overstretching our resources? An exciting challenge!