I like Delicious and take it with me wherever I log in. However – shocking revelation -I don’t use it as a tool to share my bookmarks with anyone else, basically because I just don’t have time to tag in a way which would be useful to others i.e. by thinking of the many different ways in which my saved pages will be searched. I think this is probably where Delicious falls down – if I don’t have time to do it – will the students?
In addition – we all know the pitfalls of unstructured keyword searching as opposed to say a subject heading search or a controlled language search. The fact that tags are very random and subjective means that it can be quite difficult to retrieve a comprehensive list of webpages. Possibly “tagging” would be a good way to illustrate to people who complain that the “Dewey” system is too complicated, why we organise/structure information in the way we do.
Just reading what I’ve just typed – I sound really negative about it. I actually really really like it and use it loads – I think it could be very useful and I need to start tagging in a more altruistic way. There’s also potential for it to be included in info skills sessions to introduce the importance of varying keywords.
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