Do you think social bookmarking could be beneficial to the LIS field? Why or why not?
I absolutely think social bookmarking could be beneficial to the LIS field. Why? Because it is a way to retrieve information faster and to find items that you on your own may not have found on your own.
Using teamwork with collegues to find quality, useful information is a win-win situation. If we, as professionals, can implement a product to facilitate better practices in information retrieval we are doing our job, reduce searching time and ultimately have the ability to help more patrons. Sharing useful tags with patrons will not only give the patron the fish but will also help teach the patron to fish so they may be able to use that knowledge to further their search.
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I agree with you, and think that social bookmarking is a great enhancement to any reference environment. If an information organization creates a del.icio.us account (or anyother social bookmarking site) and starts adding information resources to it with the intent that anyone on the reference desk will have easy access to all the same information, then I think it will go a long way in enhancing the overall reference experience. I am sure that most information organizations utilize internet bookmarks, but as we have seen in this class so far, social bookmarking and tagging provides a much richer experience.
I also agree that anytime we, as information professionals, can increase the success of information retrieval then we are doing our job.
I agree! Not to mention that it will show the digital kids that we're on top of it, using cool tools, too. :-)
I too see the advantage in using Social Bookmarking in libraries to enhance the user experience. Having and using delicious (or other) tags in the library is a smart way to bring the user into the library experience. As I mentioned in my literacy post, with tags, more users will understand and or be interested in searching for material.
I have one concern and that is that some libraries may not want to adopt these technologies, having fears that the older and more traditional systems might get pushed out. But I also know that librarians need to evolve and check in with what the user wants and what systems they understand. Right now that is web 2.0 technology.
I also think, as Amy does, that it is "hip".
It is so very important to speak the same language as those who are living the web 2.0 technology experience. I am thoroughly enjoying being able to converse about web 2.0, whether it is with my dad's girlfriend who is toying with the idea of joining Twitter and wants my help with it, or with my nieces who are in the generation that has grown up with "all this cool stuff". The fact that I can live in both worlds is a plus: I can converse with the hip users and teach or explain web 2.0 to the ones who are just hearing about it. This is just a taste of how it will be in the future.
Sarah Naumann