Thing #13 - Social Bookmarking Sites (Delicious)

Social bookmarking sites are a fantastic concept with numerous potential applications. I explored all of the mentioned tools at length, creating an account with Delicious, since that's the one Mesquite librarians are using. I installed the buttons, but the "extra" ones aren't showing up (even in my hidden icons) so I'll need to look into that further. My bookmarks are set up on each computer I use and divided into folders and sub folders. It may take some practice to find the best way to tag sites in order to locate them quickly, and having only begun to use this tool, it remains to be seen whether or not my bookmarks will be as easy to find as they are now in my specific folders. However, I love the idea of no longer having to create folders, and multi-computer access simplifies life immensely!

I found the format of Delicious stark and boring, however, I didn't really like Magnolia's format either. Taking into consideration my very limited use of these sites so far, Furl seemingly has the best features. Again, the other sites may have the same goodies and I just haven't discovered them yet. Furl features that I like include: ability to save entire pages or just clippings, a full text index search of saved pages, recommended links, and a multi-format citation generator. Those items would have saved me a ton of time and frustration while working on my librarian certification.

It seems rather obvious to me that the library and classroom applications are numerous. Teachers can post links for students and for each other. Groups can be set up to include anyone, so a librarian can set up research links by grade level, research unit, class, etc. Students can set up links to share with the teacher and each other. The ability to make groups private helps protect students. I'm certain I'll discover many other uses as I become more familiar with these sites. Of course, someone has probably already marked sites that list all the ways librarians and teachers can use the tool! Now, if I can just think of the best keywords to find those sites...