Thing #13--Delicious!

I like Courtney's definition of tagging and the indication that sites like del.icio.us focus on their attention on "organizing data" (Courtney, 2007, p. 92). The ability for users to classify their own or other people's data in a way that makes their own web activities more simple and straight-forward seems like an innovative and interesting idea. I really like that with del.icio.us, you can access your bookmarks from any computer, ensuring that you are not tied solely to your home or personal computer.

I could see the application of Delicious for research assistance, although I somewhat am a little skeptical of the credibility of websites. Can sites be bookmarked on Delicious with a specific tag, despite the fact the site could be bogus or not credible? I do see the easy availability of accessing bookmarks from any remote location (for personal, business, or school purposes). I did read a good article, (located through a tag search for "bookmarking" from Library Journal that highlighted the many different ways that libraries can take advantage of social bookmarking sites. I thought the "task tagging" where essentially bookmark bundles could be created targeting a specific audience. Essentially, librarians (reference librarians) could help patrons with long/short term research projects by locating specific, authoritative sites and bookmarking them for patron usage. I also read a little about Library Thing.com, which I have used briefly in the past and am interested in learning more about (I also believe we have a project coming up that utilizes LibraryThing?).